


Calamity Ascendant - Return of the Black Queen

by Bunnycat_Senpai



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Minor Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:00:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29079765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunnycat_Senpai/pseuds/Bunnycat_Senpai
Summary: The shepherd's duty is to protect Desolation from ruin, to face and overcome the Lord of Calamity. A story repeated countless times, hardly ever changing since its beginning in distant past. And yet it does change; it will. For in time, champions of old and the very gods will rise from their slumber, changing the fates of Shepherd Sorey and Desolation forevermore.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 35





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> A few quick notes before we start. 
> 
> First of all, expect massive spoilers for both Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, beginning in this very chapter. If you mind spoilers and still want to play one of the games, do that first and return here later.
> 
> Secondly, I will be making some adjustments to the world as portrayed in Zestiria based on information learned from Berseria, plus a few other things to improve the mess that is Zestiria's lore. I guess this technically makes this an AU.

The sun stood high in the sky when an odd pair of travelers made their way through the forest. Blood red leaves crunched weakly under the woman's boots, neither of the two caring for what was a normal sight in these parts. The younger boy trailing after her wore a beaming smile as he spoke, uncaring for the backpack that weighed on him. "I can't wait to have some of Celica's cooking again!"

His companion glanced back with a sly grin and shoved his shoulder playfully. "Why now, isn't mine good enough for you anymore? Is that how it is, Laphi? My own brother betrays me for my sister's cooking?" They both giggled at that and the boy weakly slapped at her offending hand, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"It's not my fault you're the middle child, Velvet. Celica has years of experience over you, so you just don't compare." He put a hand over his heart and offered a half-solemn expression; half mainly because he was still grinning. "But you _are_ my sister, so I love you anyway, even if you're the worse cook."

"Why, you brat!" Velvet swatted her little brother's shoulder again and turned around to keep walking. Yet she, too, was grinning. "You better not say that to any girls you bring home." The boy's laughter died. "Don't think I didn't see how well you got along with that Kamoana girl."

"Velvet, she's seven!" Laphi whined, taking longer steps to catch up with his sister.

"And you're eleven, that's not much of a difference when you get older," Velvet chided him immediately, though with a grin even meaner than the one he had before. "I mean, look at Arthur and Celica. They're almost ten years apart and I haven't seen a more loving couple."

"It's still creepy at my age. Or yours." Despite his complaints, all Laphicet got in response was a tinkling laugh.

"Velly!" As so often, the first one to see them coming was their nephew; he rushed out to meet them on the path up to the house and ended up stumbling right into Velvet's arms with a happy noise. She picked the child up and twirled him around.

"There you are," Velvet cooed as she held him. "You get bigger every time I see you; you're already four now, aren't you?" Laphicet just smiled indulgently and waved at the little boy, who waved back with a big, toothy grin. The young woman took that time to greet their family, roused by the earlier shout: "We're back, Arthur, Celica."

Both of them had made their way over by that point; Arthur arrived from the backyard, dressed in his usual grey pants and shirt though smudged with brown earth, his deep blue eyes darting over the two siblings. "So I can see. Welcome home." His smile was small, but that did not diminish the warmth he greeted them with; one could see how the little one in Velvet's arms inherited Arthur's pale blond hair, though it was a few shades more yellow instead of being almost white.

"It's good to see you two still in one piece," Celica added while slinging a rag over her shoulder; both husband and wife had their hair bound in ponytails for their chores. With them standing next to each other, the deep black of Celica's longer tresses stood out even more than it normally did; the same shade Velvet had, if a good bit shorter.

While Velvet was busy holding her nephew, Laphicet stepped forward to embrace his sister and brother-in-law. "It's good to be back," he greeted them as well. "How have things been?" In comparison to his two sisters, the boy appeared more like he was related to Arthur with his bright blond hair, though he had the same amber eyes as Velvet and Celica.

His oldest sister gave him a gentle pat on the head. "Oh, the same as always. You know how it is, nothing ever happens in Aball."

Everyone was seated around the table with several large bowls arrayed on it. Velvet and Celica had gone all-out for their meal, the two sisters chatting about the goings-on in the village while Arthur and Laphicet discussed one of the older man's many books.

The entire family sat outside to watch the sunset. It was a tranquil evening, interrupted by nothing but a few chirping birds and buzzing bees. Velvet felt at ease being home, content. She leaned back against her big sister's side and ruffled her little brother's hair; both women chuckled over his indignant squawk while the little boy on Celica's lap giggled at the sight. Arthur just shook his head with a faint smile, one arm wound around his wife's shoulder from the side Velvet did not occupy.

Then the sinking sun flickered. Once, twice, thrice. Velvet blinked as the light dimmed, the horizon greying out. "What the hell?!" She shouted and surged to her feet together with her brother, but there was no enemy. The world simply began to fade and darkness steadily approached them. She had no idea what was going on, panic and dread bubbling in her gut. Nonetheless, she made to usher her family to safety.

"Get in the...." She trailed off, seeing that her nephew was gone, not a single trace of him left. Arthur and Celica began to fade as well, both of them displaying sad smiles.

Then, suddenly, Velvet remembered. Her eyes turned to her brother, the only thing that remained solid in this ending world. His expression was downcast, but he understood; from one moment to the next, the boy stood clad in pristine white, finer than they would ever be able to afford. His hair changed tone toward the tips, growing ever more white where it reached his shoulders.

She turned back to her fading family, eyes prickling but still smiling. Arthur sighed and lowered his head as he vanished, but Celica remained moments longer. "I loved every minute of it," she told them quietly even as she, too, became nothing.

"I loved it too," Velvet told the void and Laphicet. "Our dream." Her brother just silently took her hand and squeezed it, having no need to voice his agreement. They stood and watched the void envelop them.

Then Velvet woke up.


	2. Prologue 1

Velvet opened her eyes. Her breath came slowly, softly, chest aching as if she had not drawn any in ages. She did not heave, but felt numb. Faint blue light shone above, crystal structures lying silently, almost like stardust in the faint glimmers of sunlight; the stars shone down from above.

She blinked, then again. After the third time, her nose detected a faint scent of mint in the air, then something else she could not yet place. Another few blinks passed until she could hear faint breathing over her own heartbeat; the sound made Velvet turn her head, which sent jolts of pain through her entire neck and left shoulder. She flinched weakly, but did not abort the motion; her reward was the sight of her brother, silently bleeding golden blood from the wound on his back.

Another blink and Velvet felt the stickiness on her own neck as well; right, she remembered. That was where they had bitten each other. Consumed each other, a cycle that was meant to be forever. Both siblings sat where they were for a while as they got used to their actual bodies again, just breathing. Only when the silence became overbearing did a single word roll out of her throat: "Laphi?" 

Her voice sounded a little odd to her own ears, not weak or hoarse, but odd. Her brother paused once the wordless question was spoken. "I'm here, Velvet," he whispered with a budding smile.

Then a third voice interrupted their tranquility, female and audibly relieved: "That is quite fortunate. How are you feeling?" Both siblings turned their heads to find the speaker, only to be confronted with the odd sight of a rapig, its long ears standing at attention. The bulbous body was normally of pink skin, Velvet knew, but this specimen was coloured in a pure white with some silvery streaks, its beady eyes staring at the siblings intently. Moreover, the creature had wings.

They both stared for long moments, neither sibling sure what to say. In the end, Laphicet was the first to speak up: "Aside from that gaping wound on my back, I am well. And confused. Who are you?"

"We met before," Velvet chimed in before the creature could answer; she frowned, trying to recall. "You're a malak, I remember that. But I forgot your name." She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position while trying to put her thoughts in order. Her brother followed the motion; the cloth of his pristine suit rustled lightly in contact with the ground.

The rapig nodded its, her head. "Indeed," she confirmed. "I am Zui Fuu, guardian of the Heavenly Steppes. We met the day before Shepherd Artorius died." 

Memories fitted themselves together and Velvet nodded as she remembered. A glance around told her that they were still on Innominat's body, in the same elevated chamber where she and her friends fought Arthur and Laphi. The stars twinkled above and from where she sat, she could see the edge of their world, Desolation, far in the distance. The god's physical body remained up high in the sky even after she sent him into eternal slumber.

As her mind cleared and Velvet began to wonder, her brother spoke up first with a small tilt of his head. "While it is a pleasure to meet you, why did you wake us? Actually," he noted thoughtfully and glanced at his sister, "did you ask her to do such a thing?"

Velvet's flat "No" made the boy nod as if he already suspected that. They both turned their eyes back to Zui Fuu, who held her head lowered. "I was acting on my own initiative," the ancient malak admitted softly. "You are needed. The world is in danger and there is no one else left to turn to."

Hearing this, Velvet expelled her breath in the first sigh she heaved in centuries. She felt she should have expected it. "Okay," she began and then stopped, unsure how one should address this kind of thing. She was annoyed about being woken but still too busy adjusting to get mad. After a moment of thought, she motioned for the rapig. "What do you need?" Perhaps, she reasoned, she could just take care of it right quick and drag Laphi back into the seal.

Laphi, however, was already floating around and peering out to the planet below. Velvet sighed again and got to her feet as well while he took up the conversation: "Does it have to do with those clouds of Malevolence?" His words roused Velvet to dart over to his side, calf-length hair swishing around her as she moved. She stumbled twice before her body remembered how to move.

"Yes," Zui Fuu confirmed. "I refuse to see all creation extinguished." She joined them solemnly while Velvet gazed onto the distant planet below, some parts almost covered by this darkness born of the human heart. The rapig continued unbidden: "Thus I committed the ultimate sin and broke your seal, to free Innominat." Both siblings listened closely as she addressed the younger one directly now: "The Empyrean who took your place as the fifth of the gods, the one to maintain balance between the four elemental Empyreans, is on the brink of total corruption. For almost two decades, a Lord of Calamity has been running rampant without being stopped. No shepherd has risen to oppose him yet and I fear none will come in time. I saw no other choice."

Her annoyance was rising, now that she got used to being awake again, but Velvet kept it under wraps. She could see why Zui Fuu had done what she did, even if she did not like it. "So you're saying that if this Empyrean falls, you want Innominat to be there and suppress mankind's emotions to stop the spread of Malevolence."

The rapig nodded once again, though her head hung low and her wings drooped. "Correct. I wish this was not necessary, but I prefer a return of the endless cycle to a definite end."

The worst part about this, Velvet realised, was that she could understand the malak's reasoning. In the same position, she might have done the same thing; a single glance at her brother's set expression made it clear he thought similarly. He spoke up this time, putting a hand on Zui Fuu's shoulder in an attempt to console her. "Very well, we can try to help. Maybe that Empyrean can still be saved, even. Else I can reclaim my place and perform the suppression... unless _someone_ disagrees?"

He gave Velvet a telling look with the last few words, one which she answered with a roll of her eyes. "How about you ask nicely instead of being a brat about it?" Despite her response however, despite knowing she should be against it firmly, Velvet also knew it had happened many times over the millennia; the only reason their world had not been suffused by Malevolence in its entirety was Innominat, so she could not just deny him this without a good reason. So she turned back to Zui Fuu: "Anyway, can you explain what happened since we went to sleep up here?"

"Of course."

And so Zui Fuu spoke, of a thousand years having passed since Velvet sealed Innominat; how her awakening the elemental Empyreans back then led to great continental drift, turning the archipelago into a supercontinent now called Glenwood. She spoke of the current naming conventions, of Shepherd and Lord of Calamity having become recurring titles of the champions of good and bad respectively, much to Velvet's annoyance. How the malakhim were now called seraphim and daemons, born from creatures and objects corrupted by Malevolence, had been redubbed as hellions; these were changes which Zui could not understand but suspected were caused by one of Velvet's old companions.

Once she got to the new fifth Empyrean however, to Maotelus who gave the silver flame of purification to the world, her brother locked up and snarled before he got a hold of himself. Velvet blinked at him while he muttered the name. "What's with you?" she could not help but ask.

Zui looked between them cautiously and explained in Laphi's stead: "The term 'Maotelus' is a quite literal translation of 'Laphicet' into a more ancient tongue. He ascended on the day you two were sealed, from the young malak boy you held so dear." Velvet stilled as that sank in, felt herself grow colder than the endless void above. It took seconds to truly comprehend what she had just been told. Her saviour, the young boy that kept her heart from tearing itself apart entirely, whose words reached her when she had already given up. Her Phi, who had punched a god in the face for her sake, whom she loved dearly like her very own brother. Like she loved Arthur, and Celica.

She was halfway to the dim staircase before the thought even registered; she had to act immediately.

"Velvet, wait!" And then there was a small hand on her arm that stopped her, not allowing to shake it off. Velvet rounded on her brother with a snarl, but he covered her mouth and completely ignored when she bit him. "You can't just rush out there! Calm down!" They struggled for a moment until the immediate flare of emotion subsided; Velvet did calm herself somewhat and pulled her teeth out of Laphicet's hand. He healed the damage away without a second thought or a single word and kept meeting her gaze, serious.

"This is no longer a matter of you against the world," he began gently, hands grasping Velvet's shoulders. She wanted to shout back at him that he never liked Phi, but he carried on. And she listened. "We are different now, both of us. We need to see and understand what has changed and what remained the same, identify who is involved and who we may gain as allies, which areas we need to sustain and which we can accept as collateral damage. We can no longer pretend we don't care about what happens to the world."

His words touched something within her, but Velvet needed concious effort to calm her raging emotions. At the same time however, she wondered and asked: "What has changed?"

Laphi frowned at that and reached up to cup her cheeks, but the expression fell away and turned into a serene smile quite soon. "After consuming you for so long, I am now whole. But I am also weaker, I can feel it. All the strength I lost, I can sense in you now." Velvet's eyes widened at that; as if his words were a trigger, she began to feel new sensations; feelings that drew her gaze to something pitch black, pulsating almost right above the spot where their seal was. A cocoon, thrumming with power. She felt herself connected to it, felt might beyond any she had ever felt even at her apex before. At the same time she felt constricted, trapped, despite her body remaining completely unbound.

Her brother was watching as well, now taking her hand. Squeezed tenderly as he spoke what she already knew: "You have ascended, sister. You are daemon no longer, Lord of Calamity no more."

It was true, despite of how unbelievable it sounded to her in that moment. Velvet's own voice came only weakly: "I'm an... Empyrean." They both beheld her greater, yet incubating form for long, awestruck moments. 

Then Laphi grinned up at her. "Besides, you might want to get dressed before rushing out." His comment gave Velvet pause and made her look down, for the first time realising she was, in fact, stark naked.


	3. Prologue 2

Velvet looked herself over and found the only remaining kind of covering to be her long hair, as well as the strips of skin covering her left arm like snugly tied bandages. Those had remained, naturally, seeing that they were her own skin ever since she was transformed into a daemon.

She was in the nude, though little embarassment followed that realisation; the only people around were her little brother and a talking rapig, after all; she did not feel any cold either. Yet nurture, having worn clothes most of her life, made Velvet try to cover herself instinctively; she failed at that and then ceased her efforts, rather focussing on her brother who was very much clothed even though her own garb had been disintegrated by a thousand years in their seal. "How am I the only one naked?"

Laphicet chuckled at that and took off the ground, floating over to orbit his sister. "I'm a malak, Velvet. We're pure mana, so we can weave clothes out of mana whenever the need strikes." He kept circling her as if to brag and she threw him unamused looks whenever he passed by. "You should be able to do the same, being a daemon and all. Er, hellion, I mean. We should probably get used to calling them that."

He had a point, though she realised she never asked about things like that before. Then again, this new information also confused her. "Wait, that can't be right. I know Eizen went to a tailor to get new clothes made at least twice while we traveled together." And he had paid a decent amount of money for his sharp suits and sturdy boots, she distinctly remembered that.

It was here that Zui Fuu chimed in from the side, having sat down on her rear but with her forelegs still straightened: "It is a common skill," she explained, "but few are willing to spend the time on bringing it to mastery; the important part is that keeping any construct made of pure mana in its shape requires a constant amount of focus, which is impossible to hold in battle unless one goes through special training. Most human-shaped malakhim prefer to clothe themselves in physical cloth instead, but especially those who expect to see battle."

She glanced between the siblings, Laphicet now hovering next to his sister while they listened to her. "Naturally, non-human malakhim do not need to bother; the others only began doing this so as to not stir up issues with humans who can perceive them. Ah, I remember a few rather amusing events from fourty thousand years or so ago...." Zui Fuu trailed off when she saw the Crowes' flabbergasted expressions and grunted. "Well, Zenrus' embarassment aside, an Empyrean's greater mind should allow you to keep up the focus on any projected objects far easier, or at least that is my assumption for why Innominat would not even have noticed an issue."

Velvet just nodded slowly and decided to keep this an emergency measure; considering that most humans could not even see malakhim, her crafting clothes out of mana might make them invisible to normal folk. Nonetheless, she let the two malakhim, no, seraphim run her through the basics, which boiled down to focussing on what she desired and weaving her power into the given form. The difficult part lay in managing to do something with her mind instead of her body, but Velvet quickly began to form a simple blanket and covered herself.

They immediately found a problem with her work: "That's not mana, Velvet." Laphi poked at the pitch black cloth while she forced it to become brighter. "That's Malevolence," he judged with a nod. "It makes sense, I guess; you aren't a malak like me, so you wouldn't weave mana on instinct."

"Curiously," Zui Fuu chimed in as she stepped closer to sniff the cloth, "I can barely sense it at all. Concentrated Malevolence like that should be quite a bit more noticeable." She raised her head to look up at Velvet, then back at the blanket. "I reckon it is either something in your nature, or that this Malevolence takes physical form."

Velvet could not help but clutch the blanket a little tighter. "Something in my nature?"

"Yes. You are indeed Empyrean, but in difference to the other six, you ascended from being a daemon and not as a malak. Yet I can not sense much of any Malevolence from you, even though you should be a maelstrom." She had a point; daemons constantly emitted great amounts of Malevolence from the moment they first turned, whether they were originally human or not; only humans produced Malevolence otherwise, after all.

Apparently disregarding their conversation, Laphicet tore off a piece of cloth and stuck it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "Tastes like blanket," he told the women once he swallowed, to blank stares. "And some wrath, I think? Anyway, my guess would be that it's because Velvet was a therion, a daemon who devours Malevolence. Her nature as an Empyrean would align with that, similarly to mine as Innominat." 

With Innominat being the only malak, from the lowest to the very gods, who lacked the racial weakness to Malevolence, she saw what he meant. "So you're saying you can't sense Malevolence from me because I keep eating it?"

She received a poke to her side before Laphi put his ear against it. "Yes and no. I _can_ sense it in you and you're not digesting it like I do. You still do it like a therion, integrate it into your own being after consuming it instead of digesting it into mana. I think the reason it's super difficult to sense is that you don't emit any Malevolence for others to sense, and the same goes for that blanket."

When Zui Fuu had nothing else to add, Velvet nodded at her brother. "Let's go with that for now. It should be fine either way, I saw Kurogane make a hammer out of nothing before." It had been quite the sight, though she did not stay around to watch the master blacksmith work back then and promptly forgot about it.

"Alright, that's good." Laphi returned to the ground and crossed his arms as he said that, which Velvet found amusing with how she stood more than a head taller than him. "Back to the other thing, you can't just rush out there and into the thick of it."

The siblings' eyes met and both frowned at the other. Velvet's tone was low as she responded, deceptively calm: "And why is that?"

"Because we don't know enough." Laphi motioned for the planet lying beneath after that and she followed his gaze. "A thousand years are a long time and much will be different. We do not know the people involved, how many there are, where they are, how powerful they are. Are the elemental Empyreans under threat as well? Is Maotelus in enemy hands instead of simply falling? What is the Lord of Calamity planning?" With every question he asked, Velvet understood a little better. 

"We are Empyreans, sister, but you are young, still gestating up there." He motioned for her cocoon. "And as you yourself proved, I am not invincible, either. Even if it took a few coincidences and a good amount of luck for you to pull this off, I don't want to be defeated again. That's why we need to stand back for now, to observe and learn about this new Desolation. We need to accumulate strength, gather allies, find our enemies. If possible, set up a single, precise, overwhelming strike before they even know we're around."

He was right and she knew it. Even though parts of her were still urging to rush to Phi's aid, there were too many unknowns. Velvet forced her emotions under control and nodded, which drew a relieved sigh from her brother. Something about his wording had surprised her, though. "'Our' enemies?"

Laphi blinked up at her and tilted his head. "Your enemies are my enemies." He left it at that and Velvet decided not to push, thinking the entire argument over for a moment instead.

In the end, she sighed. "I guess I'm still in the underdog's mindset. A small group of misfits against the world doesn't have the luxury of picking their targets, or to stand back and watch their enemies go through with their plans." The consequences of inaction had been greater than those of failure; it would take some time to get used to this new situation. They were unknown, they had time, and they had options.

She was lost in thought for a while, but Laphi brought her out of that with a non-sequitur: "You should cut your hair." When Velvet raised an eyebrow at him, he pointed at the curtain of black hanging down to her calves. "It grew a bit too wild for me to like, you know? I think you're prettier with neat and tidy hair."

Velvet felt for her long tresses and considered them, as well as their length. "I think you have a point. It did grow a bit long over those three years on Titania." After that, she was on a mission and without much care for her appearance. So she focussed as she had been taught just before, creating a small mirror and a pair of scissors. Zui Fuu at the side made an amazed sound while Laphi just shrugged it off. Velvet sat down and began to see to herself.

**. .  
. .**

With his sister busy, Laphicet turned his attention back to Zui Fuu. He felt surprisingly good after being woken; weaker, yes, but whole now that he had the wrath Velvet held so long ago. But he also felt different, like he was now more despite his sister having taken a part of his power. Without doubt, he was the Empyrean Innominat. But he was also Laphicet Crowe, despite having been reborn as the god whose awakening his life was sacrificed for. He was with his sister again.

More importantly, only now did he realise just how much he hurt Velvet in the past. Horror surged through the boy for one long moment, but then understanding made it subside. "It seems my emotional range was impaired after my rebirth," he told Zui Fuu conversationally. "I can't say whether gathering all eight types of Malevolence or being sealed in this cycle of consumption restored it, but it did."

"It was likely your consumption of your sister," the ancient malak replied after a moment of thought. "I encountered some of Innominat's previous incarnations and none were particularly emotional."

Laphicet sighed and slumped down next to the winged rapig. He was not happy with what he did, but there was nothing he could do about it now. So he put it aside it for the time being, instead beginning to truly take in his surroundings to the infrequent snapping of scissors. 

The air was crisp and clear, filled with traces of mana and not a speck of Malevolence; he could feel it thrumming through his larger body, the cosmic earthpulse he once created; it was still there if slowed and almost inert, mana flowing in an endless circle and maintaining the area within his body as if it were part of the land; moreover, it drew mana from the void above, from the direction of the moon. Sensing that, Laphicet wondered whether there were earthpulses running beneath the moon. He wondered whether he could connect them to those running on Desolation below, on their world. It was a thought for later, he decided when something else caught his eye for the first time since his awakening. 

There, but a few metres away from them, lay a body. Clad in pristine white with golden trims and decorations, a longsword stuck in his chest. A small pool of blood surrounded the fallen warrior, looking almost new, as if it had been shed but a few minutes ago. His eyes were closed, face relaxed. 

Arthur. Artorius Collbrande. His brother-in-law, his pactkeeper, the shepherd. Felled by his sister, impaled with his own sword. The fallen saviour of mankind. Laphicet averted his gaze and looked out onto the planet below instead, trying to ignore how his gut clenched. He stepped closer to the platform's edge, looked out at Desolation, watched the great clouds of Malevolence which partly stole the breathtaking view from him. He understood why he was awakened.

But something bothered him and made him turn back to Zui Fuu, who had remained in place; now that he was mostly awake and paid more attention, he realised she was filled with Malevolence. "Are you alright?"

"I will be," she answered after a moment, blinking her beady eyes. "My blessing is a mostly personal one, for it allows me to bleed off any amount of Malevolence over time and regain total purity as long as I do not turn."

Laphi raised an eyebrow at her in wonder; he knew every malak held a personal power, a blessing, but he never heard of one like this. Moreover... "I doubt it's pleasant." Even if a malak, no, seraph did not turn from it, Malevolence was still poison to them. "But if you say so. How did you get up here? There is no earthpulse leading this way and not even a dragon's wings would reach this far." Excepting his own wings of course, but an Empyrean stood far greater than any other dragon.

Zui Fuu chuckled at that and got to her feet, tapping over to stand next to Laphicet. "To be honest, it hardly even burns anymore, ever since I set foot into this chamber. That aside, while the younger malakhim have lost the arte of teleportation, I have not. The gate you once set at the lowest ring of this structure still persists, even if the other end has been removed by Maotelus. I merely needed a few years to find the correct frequency, attune my own arte, and gather enough mana from the earthpulses to power it. Exposure to the Malevolence in them is the reason for my current state as well."

She paused and slumped down again. "I merely hope I made it in time."

Laphicet put a hand on her shoulder at that, taking a moment to marvel at the smooth, pearly white skin. "I'm sure it will work out. You worked hard for this and we will do what we can." He gave the far older being a soft pat and then turned his gaze back to the planet. "Can we use your connection to return to Desolation? I would rather not risk putting down an arte at this distance and, well, freeing up my main body would definitely draw attention to us."

Innominat's true form, the eight-headed dragon, was quite massive after all. The entire flying fortress surrounding them was this form turned into solid matter, large enough to accomodate an entire earthpulse. No one would miss a city-sized dragon descending from the heavens. Thankfully, Zui Fuu agreed. "I traveled here from the Heavenly Steppes; from there, the two of you will be able to access the earthpulses beneath the planet and ascend to the surface. Feel free to pass through once you are ready."

The scissors stopped and Velvet chimed in from behind them: "Good. We will make use of that later."

Turning around, Laphicet found that his sister was done and rustled around; a surprising amount of raven hair was slowly swiped into a pile, Velvet's own mane now having lost some of its volume and merely reaching toward her thighs. The younger Crowe could not help but nod his approval. Scissors and mirror vanished, their tasks fulfilled. After a moment however, he realised that something was missing still. "Can I braid your hair?"

Velvet gave him a sidelong glance while she finished up and burned the excess hair with a quick flash of fire; she measured her brother for a long, anxiety-filled moment. But then she smiled softly and nodded, extending at least that much trust to him. Laphicet braided her hair before on occasion, but that was before everything happened. He could not help but smile as well while he hurried over.

Meanwhile, Zui Fuu toddled toward the staircase, excusing herself. "I need some rest, I am afraid. Please find me once you brought your affairs into order." She received no response from the siblings, but did not expect one at this moment either. She had been heard and knew that.

**. .  
. .**

While Velvet sat down and began to practice creating clothes once more, Laphi kneeled behind her and separated strings of hair for her braid. He worked slowly and a little clumsily, knowing that it had been a while and not wanting to mess up. 

Silence enveloped them for a while; a calm, almost forgotten kind of silence that put them both at ease. Velvet did not require her entire attention on the creation process, but her thoughts wandered. Sometimes she felt a slight pull on her head, but Laphi tried his best to be gentle with her hair. Yet he was Innominat, and there in the corner of her eyes was the body of Artorius, right where she struck him down. Velvet had a feeling that she was not the only one thinking of the past. As proper trousers began to form on her legs, she sighed. "We need to talk."

The motion behind her ceased momentarily, then Laphi continued his work. "Agreed. I'm sorry, Velvet. Terribly sorry about what I did to you, and what I let others do. There is no excuse for that." He was right and they both knew it. Velvet would never be able to forgive those hellish years.

At the same time, she still loved him. Her unbandaged hand reached back to pat his knee a little clumsily. "It's okay," Velvet reassured her brother. "I won't forgive you, but I accept your apology. You and Arthur both, you were punished. So let's leave all this in the past and go back to being a family." She paused for a moment, then nudged her brother, her sense of humour reemerging. "We can call this your rebellious phase."

Laphi let out a silly giggle at that and Velvet had to smile as well. "I don't mind that," he ultimately said, then went to hug her from behind. "I'm just glad you give me the chance. I still love you, Velvet."

"And I love you, Laphi. I always have." She did not try to turn around, just let herself be at ease now that she had her brother back. After a while of them just staying like that, he went back to working on her braid; it came a little loose during their embrace, but they had time right now. Velvet's smile dimmed as she thought of where to go next. 

"We will have to put down some ground rules." Laphi slowed a little as she began to count up: "First, no genociding mankind. Second, no suppressing anyone's emotions unless it is necessary or you have my explicit permission. Third, no eating people needlessly. Actually, make that not eating anything beside food needlessly; no, blankets are not food." She could vividly imagine the face he made at that and found herself grinning. "Fourth, no killing people needlessly. I feel I should say something about mental torture, but you should understand that one on your own."

"Alright, alright, jeez." He sounded so exasperated that she could almost feel the force of his eyes being rolled. "There you go trying to eradicate mankind once and they never let you hear the end of it!" Velvet just huffed at that and let the conversation stall. Now that she had her brother back, she felt herself relax more than she had in a long time.

At some point her braid was complete, but Laphi undid it and started from scratch. She let him, just for the novelty of it. Halfway through the second attempt, he spoke up: "We need true names." Velvet inclined her head to convey she was listening. "I want a new true name to commemorate this new chapter in our life and you need one period. You're an Empyrean now. Actually, you will need a more fitting name for your station, too."

"Ah, like you being Innominat?"

"Exactly."

"Alright, what do you suggest? I don't know the ancient tongue."

Silence settled once more while her brother considered the question. Velvet knew that true names were important to the mala-, seraphim. A name in an old language, one that only their beloved and most trusted friends even knew, resonating with their very being. After a little while, Laphi poked her shoulder. "Just tell me something you consider for my true name and I will translate it, then I'll name you."

And so it began; Velvet first considered just using 'Laphicet', but remembered that made Maotelus before she even suggested it. She tried a few simple things like 'Beloved Brother', but found that none worked; that one ended up being 'Dumipuy Dwishuw', which both agreed was unworkable just like her other initial ideas. She considered doing something mean, but felt it inappropriate for a name meant to be eternal.

After a few attempts, she found a winner. "What about 'Kind Light'?" Once she was given the literal translation of Geby Mexhs, Velvet played around with it for a bit. "So we could make Geb Imesch out of it, right?" He confirmed that and she decided to pick this one. It felt appropriate.

After that, now that it was his turn, Laphi just considered for a few moments. "Considering your primary colours, I think you will be best described as 'Mib ncajs kubbitt', Red Black Goddess. With some adjustments, that makes you Minkkubi, the red and black goddess. That I declare the name the world shall know you by." There was no actual weight to this name, but Velvet knew she would treasure it anyway. "As for your true name, it shall be Sub Smuyaw, which means 'Gentle Dark'."

Once more she was touched; Laphi quite clearly adjusted the length and number of syllables in her true name to match the one she chose for him. Velvet repeated it to herself and internalised it, felt it sink into her very being. It became a part of her, different from Minkkubi or Velvet. And as the true name took hold, a small shock went through the room. Velvet shuddered as more sensations connected to her, feeling herself surrounded by darkness. Both siblings looked up to the cocoon as it began to pulsate.

"We might have affected your gestation, sister, Laphi noted idly. "See if you can take hold of your body?" He put the finishing touches on her braid while Velvet did as he asked, casting her mind outward on instinct. She pulled on muscles she did not realise she had, saw the cocoon buck a little bit. A pair of bright crimson eyes opened within, shining outward. Suddenly she could see herself sitting on the ground, her brother standing behind her and finishing the braid.

Looking up, she found that the cocoon began to fade, Malevolence being drawn in and revealing a draconic head peering down at them. It was long and sharp, attached on an even longer neck that connected to a massive body, which flopped onto the ground with a wet sound; the impact sent a weak tremor went through the platform. 

Both siblings looked over the newborn creature, still as it lay to watch them in turn. Velvet felt quite weird to see from two different bodies, but even more so at the sight of an unfinished dragon. Her scales were a pure obsidian and covered the entire body, in some places run through by pulsing crimson veins. She was, however, missing all four legs apart from a few centimetres of stumps, her tail, and one wing. Stepping forward and running a hand over her scales, she found them to be warm and sturdy. Each one had about the size of her hand, the body itself roughly as big as a horse; if this body of hers had its legs, it would roughly compare to an equine in height as well.

"Hm. I'm not sure if this was supposed to happen, or if we turned you into an early birth on accident." Laphi stepped next to her and she felt power flowing from him even while he rubbed his hand over her scales. Empyrean Minkkubi's eyes closed for the time being, she only needed one pair. At the same time, one of the giant spires in the distance lost its solid form and became a golden scaled head, attached to a giant golden neck which reached down and terminated in solid matter further down. It leaned closer and became bigger, finally revealing itself to be the size of the entire platform they were standing on. An eye bigger than Velvet glanced down at the comparably tiny form.

"I would like to protect you until you can spread your wings on your own," Laphi explained sadly, "but there is no Malevolence here to feed you with. We will have to take you down to Desolation so you can feed." 

"Yeah." Velvet did not like the idea much, but she also knew the earthpulses were generally empty of threats. Thanks to her previous exercises, she put some effort into creating proper clothes now while Innominat's head leaned closer still, garbing herself in something reminiscent of her old villager clothes; sturdy boots and light, black trousers together with a maroon tunic. It would do.

"Well," Laphi noted with a glance over her attire, "with you dressed nicely and smiling again, maybe you can find yourself a man this time instead of scaring them all away." He just grinned about the unamused look that earned him, even when Velvet went and ruffled his hair.

"I think I will have my hands full running herd on my cruel god of a brother, don't you think?" He chuckled and so did she, but at the same time Velvet wondered just how long it had been that she even considered romance at all. It felt like a lifetime away that she even cared and now she wondered whether it should matter in the first place. She was an Empyrean now, a goddess. Immortal at that.

In the end, she decided to wait and see what life brought her on that end.

"Either way, I will pick you up and set you down at the teleportation arte below; you can't fly like this." They both stepped back while the giant head leaned down and gently picked up Minkkubi with his teeth. Velvet felt weird about those sensations, but gave no reaction beside a faint shudder; from what she could see, her body would have fit five times into this single maw of Innominat. Turning away, she found her gaze once again drawn by Arthur's body. He looked more peaceful in death than he ever had in life.

After a moment of consideration, she walked over with Laphi following; the giant shadow above them slowly left and light once again illuminated his face. Something had preserved him in this state, perhaps the direct presence of their seal just a few dozen metres away.

They stood over him for a long moment, then Velvet slowly pulled the blade out of his chest. Instead of throwing it away however, she considered the pendant still attached to it; Celica's pendant, the one Arthur himself crafted for his beloved wife and which he kept carrying after her death. Two lightly coloured feathers crossed over a round, dark plaque.

Her hands shook when she undid the knots and took it off the blade's crossguard; Laphi watched her but said nothing, receiving the weapon to carry along. The pendant went into Velvet's pocket, then she crouched to pick up Arthur's body. "Leaving him here feels wrong," she told her brother, who just nodded solemnly.

With nothing left on this fateful platform, they made to leave and wake up Zui Fuu.


	4. Prologue 3

Atop the heavens hung a temple fortress, coloured a bluish black much like the night sky. Light used to orbit the grand structure, but had faded over time. All around the main structure, giant diamond-shapes floated, directed downward like swords ready to fall. They had remained in place, disconnected but still a part of Innominat.

To Velvet, their walk down the different rings and layers was uneventful. She distinctly remembered fighting her way through droves of mind-controlled mala-, seraphim, but now it all lay silent. Walkway after corridor after staircase, inert. The faint thrum of mana rushing through the structure was subdued in comparison to before; only slight tremors went through the stonework under their steps, like faint breaths or a heartbeat.

It was eery how much this solid structure could feel like a living being, even if it _was_ one.

There were only the three of them, a procession that remained mostly silent for the first part of their journey. Zui Fuu spent some time explaining an arte developed by Maotelus and Mayvin to hide sight of Innominat from below as an additional precaution, the behemoth's position unchanged far above the Empyrean's Throne; the grand temple once built for Innominat lay abandoned now, for Maotelus had been sealed beneath it.

Soon enough the scenery changed, from blue-tinged air around the various rings, buildings, and spires to a purple and black flow, the latter clear and deep in difference to Malevolence's inky darkness. They descended to the cosmic earthpulse that ran through Innominat's center and encountered an issue: the path was unstable now, leaving them no way further down. Velvet dipped her foot into the flow to test it, but the mana gave without even a token resistance. She sighed and shook her head at the other two. "What now? Do the other teleportation artes below still work?"

She received a shrug from Laphi, who took to the air again. Zui Fuu fluttered her wings in response and both got a flat stare from Velvet; her brother just motioned for her to go up. "Just do as I do and will yourself to fly," he offered with a shrug. "Will yourself to take to the air. The base of it is the same as creating cloth and other things."

So Velvet did, surprised at how easily she rose once she focussed on it. Her braid bobbed back and forth as she tried to keep her balance, moving this way and that; the body in her arms made it more difficult, but she held on firmly so as to not drop him. Laphi clapped for her when she hovered in a stable position with a cheerful "Well done!".

Their descent continued from there, though this time more vertically; the three travelers could easily glide downward and made certain not to cross the streamers of mana more often than they had to, just in case. Ring by ring they passed, time that Velvet spent thinking and getting used to her new powers. She slowly began to realise that the sensations from her draconic body did not become in any way weaker, but asking Laphi just brought out a dismissive "distance doesn't matter"; either way, she decided to look into what else changed before long.

"I am quite glad your awakening went so smoothly," Zui Fuu admitted to them along the way. "I expected greater complications than I encountered and the seal itself was easy to remove."

Laphi turned her way in mid-air at that. "Actually, now I'm curious: didn't you worry that you might get suppressed or killed in a rage after waking us? It was fairly reckless."

"That it was, but I accepted those consequences in exchange for a chance." Her voice was solemn and Velvet's opinion of the malak rose a notch. She was far less annoyed about being woken now, understanding how important this was to Zui Fuu.

The next revelation followed by the time the sun shone at them from the other side, blasting the three with bright light; they traveled for hours, yet neither Velvet nor Laphicet were tired while their companion had to rest her wings from time to time and desired to take a longer break now. "I'm not used to such exertions anymore, my ascent took days."

"Well, Laphi is a big boy now," Velvet mused out loud while her brother shuffled awkwardly at the side. Then she shrugged and made to sit, but he had a better idea.

"If it isn't too intrusive, I could carry you? We can get places faster that way." Laphi still fidgeted a little after Velvet's last comment, but his offer was genuine. 

Zui Fuu hesitated and considered, then she nodded and toddled toward the boy; he had to fiddle a bit and create a scabbard for Arthur's blade first, but then he picked her up to carry in his arms, almost vanishing under her mass. "It is quite alright," the older malak explained gently, "I am just not used to having company anymore. Thank you kindly." 

Neither of them could see Velvet's grin; like this, it looked just like a boy and his pet rapig.

As their journey continued and they scaled the various rings, their goal at the very bottom slowly getting in sight, Velvet continued to practice her flight while Laphi and Zui talked about the latter's duties in the Heavenly Steppes; she already knew what those were, so she paid no mind to it. By herself, she wondered about this way of flying; anything else she ever saw in flight had wings, even if some dragons appeared far too heavy to be carried by theirs. She had none, simply willed herself to move in any direction. It would be an incredible boon in combat.

Then however, thinking of wings, she thought of birds. And from there she thought of Arthur, the weight in her arms becoming more prominent to her senses again. 

Velvet thought back to her friends, her little band of misfits. It had been a thousand years, yet she wondered whether some of them might still be around; Eleanor and Magilou had both been human and obviously died long ago. Both were far too steadfast to become dae-, hellions. Laphicet, Phi, she knew was still there as Maotelus, if currently in danger. A flash of determination made Velvet glide faster for a few seconds, but she caught herself before Laphi noticed. 

This left Rokurou and Eizen. Hellion and seraph they were, and both tough as nails. She doubted either of them would get killed easily, so there was hope to meet at least someone again. 

These thoughts slowly began to worm their way deeper as Velvet realised there was nothing else left. A thousand years had passed, anyone she ever knew had long since turned to dust. Aball, her village, likely was wiped off the map. The map itself would be unrecognisable due to her own actions in the past. She and Laphi both, they had nowhere to go and no one they knew. All they possessed at the moment were an unusable armatisation catalyst, the corpse of a shepherd, a pendant, and each other.

Velvet's jaw clenched and she fought down a wave of sadness as reality crashed down on her. She felt her eyes prick, but fought back the tears. She was where she stood now due to her own choices and she knew she would make them again, do the exact same things, were she back at the beginning. This was who she was and if they had nothing waiting for them now, she knew, they would just build something of their own instead.

Soon after her surge of nostalgia, the little group reached the lowest ring, only a few dozen metres wide and connected to the next one over various pristine spires. The singular platform it consisted of held a circle of solidifed mana glowing in faint white mixed with gold, a curtain of the same colouration roiling above it like a portal.

Velvet let out a quiet sigh and turned away from it, addressing Zui Fuu: "Give us a few minutes, there is one other thing." Laphi let down the rapig, who seemed to understand without any need to explain. Velvet stepped over to the walkway's edge and put Arthur's body down with great care, her little brother by her side. "I don't think he'd want a grave in nowhere," she mused. "Aball is gone, Celica's grave never even held her body... do you mind?"

She produced fire from her palm and glanced to Laphi, who raised his own hand to do the same. "We will do this together," he told her quietly and Velvet nodded. Her gut clenched and she allowed the tears to flow this time; Laphi did the same and neither cared.

Wordlessly, the siblings weaved a ring of fire around their dead brother before raising the temperature and incinerating him. Zui Fuu was the only witness as the first shepherd, the man meant to save the world yet lost faith in mankind and sought to end it, turned to ash under his solemn family's hands. Neither spoke, but both Velvet and Laphicet thought back to happier times, when they were just a family living together.

In the end, when the fire died, Laphi broke the silence. "Your soul has long since departed, but it is only right to give your body back to the world you loved so much. I'm sorry it took us so long." He turned his head to Velvet. "May I?"

She nodded and stepped back while her brother created a sphere of wind to gather up every last speck of ash; he then split it into two even amounts, two spheres, one of which he slowly offered to Velvet. A few words of advice on how to keep the winds steady and she held onto it, understanding what her brother intended to do. They began to float and left the stone archway, away from Innominat in opposite directions.

Once she made some distance, Velvet steadied herself and cast her sphere outward. Her control broke after it made a few dozen metres, but it was enough; when the winds dissolved, his ashes fluttered out and began to sink slowly. Artorius Collbrande would return to Desolation, what was left of him to be carried all over the world by the winds below.

Velvet could not think of a better way to put him to rest.

All three kept an almost reverent silence for a minute as they watched the ashes scatter, brother and sister returning to the glowing arte in the meantime. 

After a time, the entire structure lurched and Innominat's head came into view from above, bending backward on his long neck; he carried Minkkubi's body between his teeth, so gentle that Velvet barely felt them poke her scales. Zui Fuu watched the head grow closer with them, saw him gently deposit the newborn goddess on the archway right next to the teleportation arte before retreating; a wave of hot breath ruffled their hair and feathers and clothes, then the head bent out of sight.

Velvet and Laphi picked up her new body while Zui Fuu activated the arte, then the four simply walked through and arrived in a hall of pristine white, marble-like architecture. Dust had settled in various places, on the stairs they were led down and on any of the ornamentation in the hallways they passed. There were no personal effects, no plants, not even something like frescos, just empty, white walls with some slightly darker spires and soft light shining from every ceiling, wherever they went.

"I am afraid you can not stay for long," Zui Fuu apologised to them. "I need to recuperate, and I feel the both of you wish to get to work sooner rather than later. My apologies for the rudeness nonetheless."

She was right, though Velvet did not much care for the rapig appearing rude. She had been far more abrasive not too long ago, at least where her own memory was concerned and not the actual passage of time. "It's fine, you're right." Though she would miss Zui Fuu somewhat, having gotten used to her presence by this point.

"Get better soon," Laphi supplied from behind Minkkubi's form and Zui Fuu's wings folded up a little tighter. "And thank you, for helping us get started."

They reached a gate at the bottom of the Heavenly Steppes minutes later, in the center of a once again empty hall big enough to hold hundreds of people comfortably, with only the stairs leading up and out. The gate opened only after Zui Fuu deployed six different artes to various sections of it. She bowed her head deeply at them while bright light cast her into a deep blue from behind. "I wish you two the best of luck. Follow the green earthpulse for now, it will lead toward the surface."

She made room for the siblings to walk through, but Velvet stopped by her side and balanced her new body on one hand; the other, she put on the ancient malak's shoulder while giving her a smile. "We'll see you later," she promised, "once this mess has been taken care of." A gentle squeeze later, she took proper hold of herself again and kept moving. Zui Fuu did not respond, but Velvet thought she saw her eyes glisten.

The gate closed behind them, leaving the two Empyreans to stand on a small rock platform in a sea of gleaming, blue mana. It flowed in the direction they were looking, intersecting with a red stream and a green stream that seemed to spread toward the horizon, under a sky which was an odd sort of black that felt more like a wall than an abyss. More importantly however, Malevolence coursed through all three in thin streamers like oil in water, standing out against the otherwise bright colours. They set down Minkkubi and Velvet looked out into the distance. "It's still weird to look at, you know? How does all of this fit in here?"

Laphi just shrugged before dipping a hand into the blue mana flow, explaining: "The space within an earthpulse is extradimensional, it doesn't conform to the area outside of it. If more than just the Empyreans and a few skilled or powerful malak-,er, seraphim could access it, there might be an actual second ecosystem down here. But that aside, you should eat."

The Malevolence streaming past them began to pool around his fingers and Velvet had her draconic body inhale, which drew darkness from the entire area and into her maw. It flowed down her throat like syrup, but she could feel it pulsate within. Some mana came along but integrated itself just as well. The stump of Minkkubi's second wing began to grow out as they watched; it would take a while, but she should be able to at least steer herself soon.

Then her brother stepped to the edge and made a clumsy nosedive into the mana, much to Velvet's surprise. He surfaced a moment later with a laugh and turned around to wave at her. "Come in, we need to swim and it's warm!"

She blinked at him before huffing and shaking her head. A harsh push to her other body brought it into the stream where she could keep drawing in Malevolence and mana, then Velvet followed Laphi's example and dove. It was indeed warm, pleasant even. Her clothes stayed dry, she noted to herself as she began to make breaststrokes out of habit to follow her brother.

At the subject of clothes, however... "Get changed, Laphi."

"Hm?" He looked down at himself, then at her. Not understanding what she meant.

Velvet pointed at his gaudy outfit as she explained: "Those are too attention-grabbing, I need you to wear more plain clothes for the time being." Not to mention that she had some issues with how his current garb had been cut, as well as some wonder about the strips of cloth spiralling around his legs below those short shorts. She would bring it up some other time, though; at least he got her point and transformed his clothing into long, dark brown pants and a white shirt with the same green jacket he used to wear. Velvet could not help but smile at the sight; they both picked outfits similar to what they wore before... everything.

They began to swim through the earthpulse, once again on an uneventful journey beside some trouble steering into the green stream and bringing Minkkubi along. Laphi emitted streamers of golden light that settled into the flows as they traveled, telling her that he would use Maotelus being out of it to slowly subsume some of the earthpulses, just in case they needed it.

A day passed that way before they reached another intersection; Laphi had a better grasp of these ethereal areas than her and could tell both earthpulses led to the surface, so they took the blue stream for no real reason.

After a time of drifting through the calm blue, Laphi bumped into his sister softly. "You might need a vessel sooner or later," he told her of his thoughts. "Maybe you won't need one as a former daem-, ah, hellion, but you just might. We can share the earth after dealing with Maotelus, there is enough space in here." Velvet nodded softly, recalling that a vessel helped seraphim to stabilise and to ward off Malevolence to a certain extent. She was still surprised when Laphi continued: "On that note, I would like to bond with you, make you my vessel for the time being."

They looked at each other, drifting through mana even as they took some of it into themselves. Velvet tried to make sense of what her brother wanted, but needed to ask: "Explain?"

Her confusion was obvious and Laphi answered while rubbing his hands together awkwardly. "Well, I know I don't need one, but I want it anyway. I can digest Malevolence, so I can bond even with a being consisting of it like you, don't worry." He quickly continued when he saw her mouth open. "It will be safe for you, too! It's just... well, I figure I could mask what few traces of Malevolence you have. Throw people off thinking you're a hellion. And it makes a lot more sense for us to be bonded if we travel together, you know?" He paused for a moment while Velvet considered, then added one more reason: "And anyone in the know would get suspicious at your speed and strength if you have no bonded seraph."

That, she agreed, was a good point. After all this talk, she had to admit that she was also curious what it felt like. So she agreed.

Unfortunately, her question was answered in a rather disappointing way; once Laphi completed the arte, she just felt a little weird. Her body did not need to adjust because she was already powerful, so she just felt odd, tingling all over for a few minutes. It took some getting used to Laphicet hanging around inside of her body, too; he whispered silly things into her head just to annoy her, became immaterial and phased inside from time to time, but she could not bear to chide him. He was just so happy and playing around even as they traveled. So she just quietly went back to practice, wanting to create and maintain a sword. She would want to have one soon.

By the following day, they were beginning to tire a little. Minkkubi's second wing had grown fully and she could now swim as well as steer with sturdy beats. Her forelegs were beginning to grow from their stumps when they came by a network of crisscrossing earthpulses in various colours, many of which connected directly to the surface. Something about the sight felt familiar, but she could not put her finger on it

Velvet was distracted from that thought by the vast amounts of Malevolence surging around everywhere. She drew in some more but held back on Laphi's suggestion, only taking some and then plunging her body right into the middle of it to keep feasting over time. He once again had a point with going slow and steady; if she acted too rashly, Maotelus or someone else might notice her within his vessel despite the haze on his mind. 

By this point, it was almost second nature to direct two bodies at once; she tried not to think of the one time they climbed onto a solidified chunk of mana and she walked on all fours for a moment. Laphi laughed at her for a while after that one. Now they both watched Minkkubi paddle around with her wings, until Velvet realised something and had to chuckle. "Heh. Budding darkness below, a cruel god's light above. They won't stand a chance!" 

Laphi laughed as well and she ruffled his hair, the boy leaning against her side as they rested. The two remained that way for a little while, but found they did not need sleep. As they enjoyed each other's presence, Laphi pointed up at one specific earthpulse, a green stream as far as Velvet could see. "We should take that one, it seems to reach higher than the rest on the outside, so that might be a mountain."

"Good thinking," she agreed despite having no idea how he could tell. "We can get the lay of the land from there and it's less likely anyone is that far up." Laphi received an affectionate squeeze, then Velvet got up. "Let's go!"

They left Minkkubi behind in the melting pot of mana and Malevolence, allowing them to move at a far greater speed. Up the earthpulse they swam, toward its highest spot where they pushed some mana together and made it float, a solid platform for the two of them to stand. Amber eyes shared one last look before Laphi nodded and raised his arm, gathering power. It fell like an axe, the edge of his hand cutting through the air and tearing at the earthpulse's internal dimension, tearing it open under the will of a god. 

The air parted, space parted, to reveal an orange wound in this reality. A rift. The siblings nodded at each other and stepped through.

It was time to see what happened to Desolation while they slept.


	5. Emergence

A vast mountain towered over the near endless meadows, their borders invisible even from its very top. The land split and coiled, veins of clear water drawing their path through a sea of emerald and gleaming in the setting sun's light. Flowers bloomed atop the mountain, birds of prey calling for their mates or in challenge. Wind rustled leaves with quiet noises, nature being the only active force around. There were no people far and wide, bar one. 

One man, standing tall on the very top of this very mountain, his black pants ragged as they often were; his chest was bare and bore white markings, skin kissed by the sun that gave an even greater contrast to the three lines running from shoulder to waist like claw marks. A mane of white hair blew around his shoulders and back as he beheld the untamed nature surrounding him, gazed toward the horizon.

This tranquility was how Zaveid preferred it most of the time. The winds whispered secrets of the land to him wherever they blew from, told him of the many flowers in bloom, revealed the faint noise of chicks taking flight for the first time in their lives.

The glass pearls on his necklace clacked against each other weakly when he turned his head, bands of muscles coiling under taut skin with every motion. There was darkness in the air, a crucible not too far from where he stood; a dark place of darker history and darkest deeds. But it was not his concern for the moment. He was here for the past, as always when he felt like making the journey. Not every year, not even the same day in the year. Just sometimes, when memories drew him back here, to this very mountain. Memories that he knew he must never forget, that he would never forget.

Zaveid had considered putting up a grave for his beloved Theodora long ago, but figured that she would laugh at him if she heard that thought. He would have too, knowing he was just not that kind of sentimental type. Yet sometimes, he just had to return to this mountain. Stand where the first love of his life died a second time after already losing herself in Malevolence before. Stand where he made his promise with Eizen.

A gentle breeze blew out his long, untamed mess of hair, rustled the long green feathers on his necklace, but he paid it no mind. It was soothing to him as a seraph, feeling his own element. The wind would always be special to Zaveid, just like any fire seraph appreciated flame, any earth seraph felt most at home underground, and the seraphim of water relaxed most in or under water.

One of his hands was behind his back, on the handle of an old relic. A single barrel with a trigger where his pointer finger would go when he held it, one of a kind and crafted by a civilisation more than a millennium dead. A memento of a dear friend, no, of several dear friends. A part of his promise. Even though ammunition was running low, Zaveid knew he would yet find a way to keep his promise; to end Eizen, no matter what.

All of a sudden, the tranquility broke. The winds shifted, the very flow of mana he felt around and beneath warped. The air crackled, hiccupped behind him. Zaveid swiftly turned around, hands already grasping for the pendulums on his belt with practiced motions; then golden light shone and they went slack as instinctive fear locked up his limbs. He knew the light before his eyes truly saw what was within. A thousand years had passed, but his soul remembered. Would always remember that light. The warrior froze for several moments, memories returning unbidden of a time where he was but a puppet, a tool to be used without a will of his own. Suppressed, stripped of feelings and choice. It was not something a living soul could ever forget. Not truly.

There, in the mountaintop's center, stood a figure of golden hair with their back to Zaveid. Their clothes were different, he could not see their face, but he knew without doubt who it was, looking out onto the meadow in the other direction. Instinct compelled him to flee and only terror kept him rooted.

The glow shorted out, the moment passed, and he could breathe again. Zaveid exhaled softly, steeled his resolve, and crushed the instinctual responses. It caught him by surprise this time, but past or present, he would not give in again. Not to Innominat, or anyone!

Yet while he knew what he saw, he refused to believe it for several seconds more; staying quiet, he watched the golden being behold the world. Together with a black and red one that Zaveid barely noticed before, his vision having turned into a tunnel toward Innominat until this moment. The orange glow of an earthpulse rift shone next to the pair, crackling again and slowly closing up as neither paid attention to it.

The larger of the two spoke in a familiar voice: "This looks similar to how it used to be." Her head rose slightly and she clicked her tongue at the black flakes dancing in the wind. "Just a lot more Malevolence."

The shorter one shrugged and answered without missing a beat. "It has been like this even in our time, sister. My domain merely masks free Malevolence somewhat when no one affects it. I'm not going to put it up for now, for obvious reasons."

Both voices were more or less forgotten, yet they slotted into his memory perfectly. The woman's was softer than he remembered, but still familiar enough; together with what was undoubtedly Innominat the suppressor by her side and knowing that they were sealed together, his memory provided images and a name. Zaveid closed his eyes for a moment and focussed, casting away his surprise, his fear, his confusion. Now was not the time and none of these feelings were among those he liked, anyway. He would find out what went on here, the certainty of it loosened his muscles and he returned to a more normal stance, chest thrust out and with an easy grin on his face as he called out.

"Now look at that, are the endtimes upon us?" His dark voice almost echoed over the distance and he could see the immediate change it caused. How relaxed shoulders tensed, how two turned almost as one. His grin widened; he still got it. "Fancy seeing you here, Velvet! Almost didn't recognise you; I gotta say, I liked your old style better!"

He ran his gaze over her primly dressed form, intentionally staying a little longer on the curves her tunic hid more than revealed. The woman herself blinked at him stupidly while he swaggered up to the two, any remaining discomfort at Innominat's presence stuffed away and hidden. The boy by her side blinked and his lips formed into an O-shape. "Oh. Him," he started with a toneless voice that gave Zaveid the creeps. "I remember now."

Yet he did not show any of it, pointing a thumb at himself with a widening grin. "That's right, kid. There's only one of me in this wide world." He then turned back to Velvet, who was still staring wide-eyed. "Now don't gape like a fish there, girl! How about a hug for old Zaveid?"

Only after saying it did his mind catch up and remind him that this here was a woman he might not want to rile up with his usual shtick. It was all fun and games even if they tried to hurt him for the audacity, but this one was actually capable and willing to murder him if he pushed too far. Either way though, he said it, so he committed and opened his arms wide while holding his grin and hoping for the best.

Moments passed as neither moved, but then Velvet's surprise melted into a faint smile. "You get this one." Before the meaning even registered with him, her arms were wrapped around his back.

A beat.

Then Zaveid carefully hugged her back, surprised by the turn of events; he cradled the most dangerous woman in the world in his arms, dumbfounded yet appreciative of her warmth and softness. "Okay, I didn't expect you to actually go for it, y'know?"

"Neither did I," Innominat added from the side; a weird feeling, that. To have a god agree with him like this. Either way, Velvet did not respond at first and neither of them could see her face in this position, chin resting on his shoulder; she stood not much shorter than Zaveid himself, which was quite tall for a woman. He had completely forgotten that. 

"It's good to see a familiar face despite how long it's been," she told him quietly and Zaveid patted her back a little awkwardly. "We were told that everything is different from what we know. Meeting an old friend makes it feel a bit more real, that this is still the world we once lived in." She then fell quiet and did not break the embrace, so Zaveid left her there; he felt a little warmer now and maybe she did, too. "You used to dress more nicely, though."

He chuckled at that and squeezed her lightly; his jacket had been ditched centuries ago, he much preferred this style to his old one. "Ah, but I can't take away this bod's sight from the ladies, now can I?"

He did not show it, but the giggle this drew from Velvet jarred him even more. The Velvet Crowe he remembered did not _giggle_ , she rolled her eyes and told you to stop with the nonsense. This new, different Velvet let go and so did he, but did not take more than a step back to take her in from up close; she used to be a wild, untamed kind of attractive. Like a flame one could admire but never hope to catch. Now though, she appeared more conventionally pretty, a long braid of raven hair gleaming in the orange sunlight. Her clothes were a little too dark to appear kind, but the gentle smile on her face made up for that.

Zaveid could not help but huff. He was not the only one who changed quite a bit. "Looks like ya got your beauty sleep for once." _Now_ however, he got the familiar eyeroll; nonetheless, one could almost mistake her for a common woman living in the next village, were it not for how she carried herself even while at ease. Her guard was up despite it all, a warrior's stance. 

Just then, a brighter voice chimed in from the side and distracted him: "What were you doing up here?"

Turning his head to Innominat with a frown, Zaveid made a dismissive motion. "Just passing by, figured I'd take a look around." He was far less happy to talk to that one.

"I didn't know you were a sightseer," Velvet shot back with a bit of a grin and he snorted, then shrugged.

"Lotta time went by since way back when. You kinda learn to appreciate where no humans walk." Zaveid glanced between the two unlikely beings and began to cross his arms, returning to the problem at hand. "Now, why're you here?"

The mood changed immediately as both became serious. Velvet quickly turned her head this way and that, but was distraced when the very air shifted; Zaveid's gaze snapped to Innominat, who tapped Velvet's side. "Not to worry, I just sealed the area; no one will be able to listen." Zaveid felt for the winds with his own powers and found a quite literal wall surrounding them; not exactly solid, but built in a way that prevented sound from carrying. He gave a nod at that, somewhat grudgingly admitting that it was good work. The boy eyed him thoughtfully. "Should I leave? You obviously don't like me."

Zaveid paused at that and looked Innominat over, then held up a finger at him. "We'll get to that in a bit. It'll depend on why you're here, too." He received a nod and both turned to Velvet, who gave him a brief explanation. What she told him was nothing he liked to hear; Maotelus on the brink, a Lord of Calamity on the loose, no shepherd, the like. For an ancient seraph to go up there and wake up both siblings meant someone thought this was beyond mortal means to salvage. Toward the specifics however, he had to interject: "What d'you mean, Innominat is the final measure? Suppressing the free will of all humans ain't a solution to anything!"

Velvet made to speak, but her brother squeezed her arm and she remained silent while the boy explained; all three of them were sitting in a loose circle at this point. "In previous cycles, Innominat's suppression was meant as the final bulwark against the spread of Malevolence. To suppress mankind's emotions means to cut off the generation of Malevolence while my nature allows me to draw it out of the world as sustenance. Once the total amount grows too low to sustain me, I fall back asleep and the suppression fades, allowing humans to start anew."

He obviously noticed the glare Zaveid levelled at him, raising an eyebrow and throwing out his arms in challenge. "It's no good solution, but I'd rather have this over a world completely covered in Malevolence, populated by hellions and dragons. You'd rather have that?!" There was some actual heat to the question that almost made him flinch and grimace. Zaveid would not, but he still hated the principle of the 'solution'.

Yet, if there was no other solution? He hated times like these, when things got more difficult than 'find monster, kill monster'. Zaveid was no great thinker. Some other force decided they needed the first Lord of Calamity and Innominat of all people, so Desolation was obviously going down the drain. He would have to step up his own game, too.

"Anyway," Laphicet added morosely, "the last time we met was different because Arthur called onto me before my time and made preparations to sustain my suppression forever, instead of letting it fade naturally. I'm not going to refuse my own responsibility in the matter, but I won't dwell on it. I understand that you doubt me, but I will make this world better!"

His declaration sounded nice, but Zaveid merely gave him a bored look, one eyebrow raised. "Kid. Pretty words mean nothing to me, so save them for a cute girl you wanna woo." It was still reassuring, but he stood by his words. His expression shifted, became more feral as he grinned, slamming a fist into his hand. "If you're a man, there's only one way we're going to clear the air."

He received deliciously surprised faces from brother and sister both, which only made his grin widen further. Laphicet gaped at him. "Are you sure? That wouldn't be fair to you at all, I'm weaker than I was back then, but I'm still an Empyrean."

"Ouch, kid! That hurts!" He was right of course, they fought before and Zaveid could not so much as scratch the god. Yet his grin had not wavered at all; it did not matter if he stood no chance, it never did.

Laphicet considered it for a moment, then he nodded and floated up into a standing position, surprising both Zaveid and Velvet. "But alright, if this is what it takes."

Velvet just palmed her face and got up to get out of their way while Zaveid stood and raised his fists in anticipation. Nothing happened for a second, then the boy tilted his head. "Um, no Siegfried?" So he had seen that Zaveid still carried it. He was a sharp one.

"Sorry, can't. I'm running out of bullets, so I can't waste 'em like this." Oh, how he would _love_ to waste bullets on this little brawl, but he needed the last few for Eizen.

"I see." Laphicet's expression was odd in a way he could not read, but Zaveid could definitely see the mana flicker over his form. "If you can't fight at your strongest, then I will lower some of my defenses and stay on the ground. That's only fair."

He received an almost owlish look from Zaveid for this, who had not expected the gesture. The older man was unsure whether he should appreciate this earnestness or feel insulted, ultimately deciding on a bit of both. "Alright then, you ready?" A nod. "Then let's go!" And he shot off to take the first strike.

Laphicet let him come, hands raised somewhat clumsily and trying to step out of Zaveid's charge; he failed and took a fist to the cheek. But the boy snapped out his shorter arm and the gale his punch threw out pushed Zaveid back. He was unharmed, but Laphicet did not even seem to bruise, so he got back in and threw a few wild swings.

His opponent leaned out of one but took the follow-up against his chest, wide eyes staring at Zaveid even while he punched back. His fist was small, but it hammered into Zaveid's ribcage and shook his entire being. Were he human, his ribs and organs would be paste from that punch. The impact's shockwave shattered grass and dirt around them, he was thrown back and off the plateau to fall down to the next outcropping; Zaveid pushed on the winds to right and throw himself back onto their chosen field. Now he was grinning again, pumped up and wanting to at least leave a bruise.

They exchanged blows again and again, Laphicet's clumsy swings missing more often than not while Zaveid tried to evade after that first hit he took, aiming few but strong punches instead of flurries like he was used to. It did not work out entirely and a minute or two after they started, he was lying in one of several craters on the ground, his entire body aching but his mind content.

Next to him sat Laphicet Crowe, sporting a black eye but weirdly cheerful just like Zaveid was.

Beside them both stood Velvet Crowe, a hand on her forehead.

He could tell the boy never was in a fistfight before; only the insurmountable gap between man and god allowed him to stand victorious. Zaveid chuckled and, after resting a moment longer, he leaned back and hopped to his feet. "Alright, we're good, kid. Your fists are small, but honest. I like it!" They shook hands as he praised the boy, both grinning.

"I'm a little surprised it would only take that much," Laphicet admitted and Zaveid almost shrugged, but then thought better of it considering his throbbing everything.

"Look, kid, if we'd met a few years after all that stuff, I'd probably still be furious. But it's been a thousand years since, I can't stay mad that long. Besides, you're trying to make up for it now, so I'm not gonna make a fuss unless you go back to how things were." The boy nodded slowly as Zaveid explained, then received a pat on the head which he didn't seem to mind.

Velvet sighed at the sidelines. "Boys are such simple creatures...."

He gave her a wink at that. "You just don't understand what it means to be a man."

This prompted the woman to turn to her brother with a voice devoid of emotion: "Don't you ever become a man like him."

Zaveid chuckled, which turned into a full belly-laugh when Laphicet deadpanned back at his sister: "I am afraid you are too late. The man-poison in his fists has already infected me. My voice will become darker within the next few weeks and I shall adopt a more striking fashion style in due time."

"Damn," he couldn't help but call out when Velvet huffed, "I actually like that kid!"

The boy grinned at that and Velvet kept shaking her head for a few seconds, but then Laphicet returned the conversation to more important matters. "Say, Zaveid? Can you tell us where we are and what happened recently? What we got from Zui Fuu was more the general gist of it, with few to no specifics."

"Yeah, sure. I've got time." He slumped down again, uncaring for bits of dirt finding their way onto his clothes. The others lacked such care as well, following him to recreate their earlier seating formation with the Crowe siblings almost next to each other and Zaveid opposite to them.

Before he could start however, Laphicet groaned and held his stomach. "I'm hungry."

"How can you be? Malakhim, er, seraphim don't need to eat." Despite her words however, Velvet did not even wait for a response before waving her hands through the air.

Zaveid looked the boy over curiously and answered while waiting for whatever his sister was doing: "Eh, seraph or not, if you like to eat, your stomach will tell you it wants food. Doesn't matter if it's more of a hobby for some of us. Whoa, what the hell?!" Part of the great cloud of Malevolence in the distance had begun to float closer, turning into several streamers of darkness which gathered in Velvet's hand. He leaned away from the closest stream so as to not get any more into his system than he already had, that was a lot of it floating by.

"Oh, man up and take it," Velvet muttered at him while keeping her eyes mostly on the Malevolence. Which was easy for her to say, being unaffected by the stuff. She compressed the darkness into a bread-sized lump which she handed her brother. "There, that should tide you over." Looking back, even the sizable amount she took barely made a dint in what suffused the area.

Laphicet dug in happily while Zaveid worked himself out of the whiplash brought by this boy just tearing chunks out of Malevolence-bread like it was a delicacy. Laphicet adressed his sister between bites: "Your mastery of Malevolence is new, but I guess it makes sense with what you are now." Zaveid sighed; he had forgotten just how crazy things could become with Velvet Crowe around. Not to mention that she was now there to stay, having become a goddess herself.

It was around this time that the sun sunk below the horizon, so Laphicet created a small ball of light to illuminate them; none of them wanted to bother with a campfire, but the moonlight was also not suitable to this conversation.

"Alright then," Zaveid started once they had light again, leaning back to look at the faint few stars he could see up high. "Let's start with the place; this here used to be the, uh..." He needed a moment to remember what it was called. "The Aldina Plains, right. Shifted around a little, but the general layout remained the same. Might have actually grown bigger since." Glancing down, he saw Velvet's brow crease and how her eyes shifted to the faintly familiar form of the mountain surrounding them. Chances were she understood this was the one she helped kill Theodora on, but she did not say anything and he was fine with that.

"As for general stuff, let's see. The area around here is called the Meadow of Triumph and it goes on for ages. Connects the Empire's capital of Pendrago and Lastonbell at the border." He paused and his fist slammed down onto his palm. "Oh yeah, there was only Midgand back then. Today the continent is split into the Rolance Empire and the Kingdom of Hyland; we're in Rolance right now. Pendrago, er, the capital, is at that end of the meadow. The other direction is Lastonbell, both are big cities. I've heard there is bad blood between Rolance and Hyland these days, they're prepping for war recently. But that's all I can tell you, I don't go into cities much." 

Neither was surprised about that. Velvet gave a few nods as he spoke and frowned down at her hands. "That's fine, this is more than we had before. What about the others? Rokurou, Eizen?"

"Oh boy, where do I start?" He knew where he did _not_ want to start, so he began with the one he knew less about, leaning onto his back to watch the stars, arms crossed behind his head. "Last I heard of Rokurou, he's still working on his swordmanship. I think I remember him marrying, a few hundred years ago or so. Or maybe he took a student, either or. He definitely took a few more a bit over a hundred years ago to see if one of them was good enough to challenge him, that was the last time I saw him too. Was pretty bummed out he couldn't find any real challenges anymore, so he tried to make his own. That, ah, didn't work."

"It must be hard, being one who yearns for a challenger yet stands undefeated." Zaveid brought his gaze down to Laphicet, whose eyes were focussed on the small ball of light floating between them. His expression was unreadable.

"Nah, the guy is as single-minded as ever; last I saw him, he found himself a madman who wanted to sail for the far continent. Told me he's going to look for strong opponent's there."

This prompted a huff from Velvet and the boy to turn her way. "He would. I'm not even surprised." She left it at that, but Zaveid could see that her lips were curling up a little bit. His own went down at about the same time, knowing what came next.

"And Eizen... well. He turned into a dragon, a few hundred years back." Her smile was gone and Zaveid averted his gaze from her, back to the starry sky. "I couldn't kill him yet. Damn that guy for being so tough, I don't have the bullets to go head to head with him and...." He trailed off, unsure how to continue. A face danced in front of his mind's eye, one that bothered him. "He settled down near his sister, Edna. She's still hoping that there's a way to save him."

There was no response at first, but Zaveid really did not want to say it out loud. Thankfully, Velvet did it for him after a few moments: "So you haven't made an honest try yet." Of course she understood; Edna looked young. Zaveid and Velvet both had a soft spot for children. He could not bear killing her brother when she still had hope.

"He was still reacting to her voice last time I visited," Zaveid added quietly, then laughed. "That bastard is still fighting to this day, hasn't tried to hurt her once in all that time!"

A hollow silence reigned after that. There was no crackling of fire, just the calls of a few owls and the chirping of crickets who made their home this far up.

There was a rustle of cloth before Laphicet spoke, the boy having leaned forward. "We could take care of him for you."

"Nah." Zaveid sat up with a push of his back and shook his head at him. "I made a promise to him, kid. No way anyone else is gonna do it." From the nod he got in return, his message was received.

"Hm. I guess I could offer you a power boost, make you a sublord and give you a piece of my power for a little while so you can do it, but I'm not sure I should and I doubt you'd want to be." Zaveid huffed, the boy had been completely right there.

"You're right, I wouldn't want to. Maybe if there's really no other choice, but I ain't becoming anyone's sublord without a damn good reason."

"Yeah, I figured as much. What about Siegfried?" Zaveid perked up at that and Laphicet continued with actual enthusiasm this time: "If you let me borrow one, I can try analysing and replicating your bullets! Melchior taught me a few basic scanning artes, sooo....?"He trailed off and waited for Zaveid's reaction, who was intrigued by the idea. He hated to be reminded of Melchior, but the proposal itself had merit; if he had a steady supply of bullets to power himself up and kill stronger hellions with, that would give him options. 

After a few seconds of thought, Zaveid pulled out one of his four remaining bullets from the small pouch on his belt. He then dropped it onto the boy's waiting palm, where several elaborate, golden arte circles flared to life immediately. Thin beams of light flickered over the ammunition. They faded out before he even registered the terrifying light.

"Curious," Laphicet muttered as he handed it back. "This is mostly just supercondensed mana, likely drawn out of an earthpulse and then refined. Which means that Siegfried itself contains the entire workings of the arte, the bullets are just fuel." He smiled up at Zaveid, his voice filled with wonder. "Isn't it amazing, though? The people of Avarost created artes to draw power from the earth itself and to condense so much of it into such a small form!"

He could not help but ruffle the boy's hair at that; despite of how mature he sounded at times, there was still a child in there. "Yeah, they really were amazing." Laphicet let his hair be ruffled, but righted it immediately after and left the reach of Zaveid's arms.

"I can definitely replicate those," he told the wind seraph earnestly. "It will take a while to gather the necessary mana and some figuring out how to compress it, but I will." He paused and turned to look at Zaveid more closely. "Actually, I was just thinking; would you travel with us for a bit? A journey is more fun with more people."

He had to huff at that. "First of all, thanks. I'll owe you one if you can actually pull that off. Second, I'm more of a lone wolf. Sorry, kiddo."

"Oh, okay." He did not appear sad, though the light drew some odd shadows over his face now as he turned to his sister. "A pity, though. Velvet is such a good cook, now I have to eat all her delicious food on my own."

Aha. So that was his game. 

Zaveid considered the obvious bait and, after a moment, decided he could bear with those two siblings for a little while. Not for the food, but for the novelty of being around people who didn't rub him the wrong way. "You know what? Fine, I'm in, I'll stick around for a day or two. Have to find out if you're really as good as he says."

Velvet just rolled her eyes, a quiet mutter of "Boys" being her only response.


	6. Begin of a Journey

The night passed slowly; no one but Zaveid actually slept. Velvet tried to, but found herself restless, too taken up by thoughts and sensations; she still had to get used to having two bodies, especially when one of them was constantly bathing in liquid mana and Malevolence, both of which prickled on her scales in an unusual yet also comforting manner. As for Laphicet, he played around with some kind of arte whenever she opened her eyes to peek at the world surrounding them; he even kept the emitted light to a minimum once she admonished him at some point.

After a few long hours, when the horizon began to brighten up, she found herself sitting and continuing her own practice at projecting various items she might need. By the time the sun rose and woke Zaveid, she had her hair down and was busy combing it; his whistling made quite clear that he was awake. "Damn, girl; now you look more like you used to!" She threw a sour look back at him, which only prompted a grin. Velvet had forgotten how irritating this could be, but it was also fun in a way. Reassuring, too; Zaveid looked a bit different, but he was still the same man she knew back then.

Thankfully, her response made him back off and leave her alone until she was done; he went to talk artes with Laphicet instead, who seemed happy to have someone else to talk to as he worked. Perhaps Velvet imagined it, but she felt she saw Zaveid tense a little with each new flash of light. After some thought, she decided it was her imagination and went back to her hair. Without distractions, she once again felt her empty stomach; she often did, hardly remembering a time when she felt sated, but now Velvet was actually famished. Sucking in Malevolence simply did not suffice for her, or at least not yet. This more human body of hers still required sustenance. 

The comb faded away and Velvet put a hand on her stomach, brow furrowing as she considered what Zaveid told them the previous day; perhaps she could train herself not to require food, now that she was Empyrean. The thought faded soon after and she sighed in disappointment, arms rising to bind her hair into a simple ponytail. "We should get going."

"Yeah, we better, before you make a snack of me and not in the nice way."

Her eyebrow twitched, and twitched again when Laphi giggled about the quip. So that previous motion of hers had been seen. Velvet turned her head to behold the grinning Zaveid, annoyance mostly absent of her voice as she quipped back: "You don't need to worry. Machos taste gross, I'd rather go hungry."

He put a hand over his heart in mock pain. "Ouch, way to hit a guy where it hurts!" But he was grinning and so was she. Laphi kept giggling a little longer before calming down.

They headed out and began to descend the mountains after that. An hour or two passed in idle conversation while they walked or floated, ignoring easy but longer roads in favour of simply dropping off where the distance was not too great. The three were already halfway down the large mountain when Laphi stopped them, pointing at a bird pecking at something a bit further down the slope they were on. 

At a second glance, Velvet figured it was a falcon; the bird had not seen them yet. Laphi poked her hand and then motioned for himself, so she watched as he composed a small arte circle surrounding his feet. It glowed faintly as he channeled mana while a second circle formed in front of his hand. In that circle, a spear of roiling air formed and rushed off when the arte completed after a second; it hit home and replaced the falcon's head, the bird dropping off the rock it had been sitting on. "I was thinking," he explained while they walked over to collect their prize, "that you're an Empyrean now, so you should be able to use malakh-, er, seraphic artes like these. Hellions usually don't have an aptitude for them and humans only learn a few basic ones while they're bonded with a seraph. You, though?"

He had a point and Velvet gave him a nod. Zaveid huffed at their side. "You definitely got the mana to pull it off, unlike unbonded humans or hellions. Kind of a shame if you ask me; would be interesting to have some humans cast more than a bit of reading light or the bonding arte on their own."

"They simply lack the instinctual understanding of how to shape mana on their own," Laphi shot back from her other side. "Which might be an issue for Velvet, too. We will have to test that soon."

Another half hour on their descent, they came by another bird. Laphi had coached his sister on the arte he used before and she brought her new senses, her new understanding to use as she drew on the mana within her. A green arte-circle formed as the mana took the shape she was told, drawing itself around her feet. The circle was apparently the most stable structure to build artes in, though others were sometimes used for greater creations.

She reached out with her hand and felt her mana grasp for the surrounding air; winds howled as they were drawn into the spear, not thin like Laphi's had been but rather the size of her head and growing. While the noise startled her target and made it flee, she only noticed after the arte ran its course and completed; after the projectile was already flying and right before it impacted the branch the bird sat on. After penetrating the branch, it punched into the tree's thick bark and tore through as if it were paper. Then it ran into the solid mountain behind the tree, using itself up in an explosion of dust and flying stones. Zaveid whistled while Laphi sighed. 

"Well," the boy offered, "it makes sense that you're used to putting in everything you have. You can definitely learn and cast seraphic artes, but you will need to learn moderation." Velvet quietly added this to the pile of things she had to do, but did not comment further. Seraphic artes _were_ useful after all.

Just how useful they were became apparent soon after, when her brother went and called a break right before they reached the mountain's foot. He took some distance and began to weave another arte, consisting of seven circles interwoven with three squares and a triangle in the very center. Veins of golden light raced through every single structure, connecting them in places and running together; the whole arte had the size of a small house.

"I remembered the basics of that arte from back then," he told the watching two conversationally as he worked. "Then I spent last night going over what I knew and had to find out, and played around a bit." The various forms pulled themselves closer together in the air, becoming smaller until the entire setup hovered between his hands. "And I think I got it... yes!"

A flash of light blinded Velvet for a moment; when she could see again, the geometry was gone and replaced with a slowly glowing hole floating where the separate components were before. Laphi grinned widely. "There we go, an extradimensional storage space for anything we pick up on the way!" He then demonstrated what he just did by pulling Arthur's sword from his waist and pushing it through the hole that expanded in size to let it through; he went in up to his elbow, rummaged around for a moment, and then pulled his empty hand back out. "And it works just fine!"

Zaveid and Velvet shared a look at that. "Can I get a convenient Empyrean to do stuff for me, too?" he asked, though she snorted about the resigned face he made, which then turned into a kind of playful indignation. "I mean, seriously! That's cheating!"

"Oh well," Laphi supplied while he pushed the hawk into the hole as well, "being allowed to cheat is just one perk of being a god." He winked back at them, which made Zaveid huff in turn.

**. .  
. .**

Morning turned to noon as they spent their time hunting more than traveling; supplies were important after all and Velvet would not have anything else, so they filled Laphi's new creation with several more birds and even a wild boar that crossed their path. Berries and herbs were added to that on the way, most of them kinds she remembered from her own time.

Velvet made doubly sure that the storage her brother created was ordered properly; it would be a mess if she just threw everything inside. Thankfully, Laphi thought ahead and gave it several 'pockets' for different things. She could even walk inside if she wanted to, finding a warehouse-sized area in every single pocket, their borders clearly marked by the intricate lines of golden mana running over every void-coloured wall and interconnected on the inside. By herself, she understood what Zaveid meant when he spoke of cheating. Although she had to admit that it felt nice to be the cheater for once and not on the receiving end.

Soon after her short exploration however, they found their first hellions. A werewolf cowering on their hindlegs, muzzle lowered and growling weakly, surrounded by three wolves that were lying on the ground and looking up at the larger canine. All four sniffed the air and turned their heads to them, but none attacked. 

"Weird," Zaveid mused even as he pulled out a pendulum, "they got more aggressive than they used to be, might be the greater amount of Malevolence in the air. Those are a lot more docile than most. You've still got the odd one like Rokurou who's perfectly fine, but not all that many recently." Velvet nodded at him; she recalled many daemons just quietly living in the wilderness during her first journey, far away from people and hoping to make do somehow. Some were aggressive and hostile, but not that many. The hellions had yet to make a move, they were simply watching them; the werewolf drooled a little, which she took as a bad sign.

"Um, Zaveid? How are you feeling with all the Malevolence in the air? Anything odd?"  
"Well, now that you mention it, I feel surprisingly fine. Kinda odd, but I'm not complaining."  
"I see. Velvet? Is your domain active?"

That got her attention and she stopped observing the hellions; Laphi was looking at her, but she could only shrug. "No idea." When that got her confused looks from both sides, she rolled her eyes. "I know domains exist, but I could never manifest one conciously. It isn't like I had a teacher for it, Phi never tried and Eizen obviously wouldn't, with his curse."

She turned her attention back to the hellions, only to find the werewolf stroking two of the smaller wolves, quietly, calmly. All four were still gazing their way and Laphi sighed. "We will get to that in a bit." Then he raised his arm and waved at the hellions, visibly making the werewolf rear back. "Hello!" Velvet could not help but give her brother a look; he was completely unrepentant and began to walk over. Zaveid shrugged and followed, so she did the same, wondering what Laphi's game was the entire time. 

The hellions tensed as they approached, but did not attack. Velvet took the time to look the werewolf over more closely, finding her to wear rags that might have been villager clothes. They were torn as if exploded outward, so she grew in size and mass when she turned. At least Velvet assumed it was a woman, considering the noticeable bulges in the chest area where breasts would have been on a human.

When Laphi reached, her assumption was confirmed by a soft and hesitant "Hello", delivered in a bright soprano voice; the werewolf crouched to be closer to his height. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry, but it's not safe around me. I-" she stopped when the boy shook his head.

"It's fine, ma'am. I know you won't hurt me. Who are you?"

The hellion's jaw hung open for a moment before she hugged herself weakly and sighed. "Amelia, I'm a huntress, or was. And I used to live in Opin, that's a small village a few days thisaway." Her explanation came slow and with audible sadness.

"Did something happen to your village?"

"No, but... look at me. I can't go back like this! I haven't been home in weeks." Velvet listened and found her heart going out to the werewolf; she turned on her own and was alone, much like Velvet herself had been after the tragedy in Aball. 

"So you left of your own volition?"

"Um, kind of? I, I always get so angry, and so easily. I think they can't see what I've become, but I'm scared of getting angry and hurting someone." Amelia hugged herself a little tighter and shivered, which prompted one of the wolves to reach up and nuzzle her fur-covered thigh. Another had slinked closer to sniff at Velvet curiously, but a quick "Mint, down!" made the creature return to its obvious owner's side. Laphi frowned as he watched that, then turned his attention back to the huntress.

"Say, you don't seem angry to me at all. Do you still feel it?"

Her response was interesting: "Well, no. It went away a few minutes ago." Before Velvet could consider the implications however, Amelia had risen to her full height and pushed her hands together to plead with him. "But it could come back any moment, please leave before I hurt you!" The third wolf took that moment to sniff at Laphi; whatever dog it used to be, now it stood as tall as the boy's chest. And yet he showed no fear but rather reached out to scratch the hellion behind its ears. Velvet could not help but smile when she saw Amelia stare at the sight, flabbergasted.

Zaveid spoke into that silence, injecting himself into the conversation: "A shepherd can help you with that one, lady." He did not even flinch when the werewolf's attention and muzzle snapped to him in an almost feral manner. "There's gotta be one soon...ish. Might be a few years, but there will be one. They're gonna purify you." Velvet could not help but give him a look at the kind words, but he gave nothing away and continued: "You should go see your family sometime, too; not like many beside other hellions and seraphim can see what you are now."

"I, I see. Thank you, kind sir." Amelia lowered her head and muttered 'Hellion' to herself, but then went stock still, wide eyes rising back up first to Laphicet and then to Zaveid. "S-Seraphim? You, you are....?"

Laphi nodded at her and let off the panting wolf with a sigh. "The world is cruel like this. Hellions and seraphim alike remain hidden from human eyes except for a select few, the shepherd being among them. In becoming a hellion, one gains the power to see yet loses most any chance of having a peaceful life."

Amelia whined a little as he spoke, nodding sadly. "I understand," she muttered to no one in particular. "I never knew all of this happened right in front of our eyes." 

Velvet nodded in agreement, then pushed herself into the conversation: "Will you be alright?"

In response however, something odd happened; something she had rarely seen from the outside. Amelia tensed up, her hands curled into fists, and she raised her head defiantly. "I think I will be fine now, thank you. To meet such kind seraphim, and to know a shepherd will come."

Zaveid chuckled at that and gave her a wink. "They always do," he told the huntress who seemed a little enthralled... probably by his abs, Velvet amended when she saw her gaze dip down a bit. 

And then Laphi had to ruin it by pointing at her. "That aside, you might want to dedicate a prayer to our Minkkubi here." When he drew everyone's attention, he smiled up at Amelia. "She is still coming into herself as a deity, but her power is what quelled your anger and cleared your mind. I believe she will allow all of mankind and the seraphim alike to push back against this corruption."

A stunned look went her way at that point, but Velvet was scowling down at her brother. "And where do you take all that from?" She was not all that annoyed, but it felt too out-there and she really did not want prayers dedicated to herself.

Laphi just shrugged. "Simple conjection, really. A seraph on the brink of falling is suddenly alright once your domain settles, and a hellion who was on the verge of giving in to violence is suddenly clear-headed again." He then turned to Amelia once more. "We are still figuring out how her powers work, as she has just been born."

His words seemed to not even register, aside from pushing the huntress out of her fugue; she sank to her knees and lowered her head before Velvet, a low howl rolling out of her throat. "Oh, have thanks oh Great Lord for your kindness! Or is it Great Lady? Please forgive your lowly servant for not knowing, have thanks!" Velvet was taken aback and completely out of ideas for what to do while Amelia continued to praise her. She did not know how to react. This was the first time since she turned that anyone thanked her like this, and the first time ever that she was actually revered. She started to reach out with a hand but faltered, expression shifting back and forth; Zaveid and Laphi were trying to hold in their laughter in the background and she threw them glares.

When the litany of thanks and apologies stopped after some time, she tried her best to keep her expression calm. "Please get to your feet." Amelia did, not daring to meet her eyes. "Look at me." She did, jaw hanging open ever so slightly and tongue lolling out. "If you will be fine, that's good enough for me."

"Chances are," Laphi interjected before another flood of thanks could begin, "that Minkkubi's blessing will fade as we leave and plunge you back into your previous state."

There was a moment of silence before Amelia bowed her head once more. "That is just fine, oh kind seraph, oh Great Lord. Just being able to catch my breath is enough, it's more than I could ever hope for. I will endure, I swear!"

"Then we better get going," Velvet decided to intervene with a smile for Amelia. "Good luck." They saw the huntress and her pack off with only a modicum of praises to the 'Great Lord' and the seraphim; Amelia soon led the wolves off to do whatever and Velvet learned that Great Lord was the current term Empyreans were referred to as. In addition, after asking Zaveid, she also found out that seraphim were worshipped in general, even if true worship went back recently.

She just gave this huntress a religious experience.

Either way, Velvet sized her brother up once the hellions were out of sight; Laphi grinned unrepentantly. "An Empyrean ought to have a following, even if she is a goddess of darkness." Which got Zaveid to laugh and agree with him.

"Heck, considering how the four of the elements are sleeping all the time, I'd be following you if you can do the goddess thing even just half as good as the villain!" Now Laphi was chuckling and Velvet had to snort, too. She ended up shaking her head, understanding that she just could not keep up with these two.

Their wandering continued and the three soon decided to leave the dirt path they were on before to explore the plains further; that was when Zaveid got back to the previous subject. "Anyway, what about that blessing of yours?" From that followed a quick introduction to domains and how to sense or project her own by Laphicet. He also explained that his therions normally did this instinctively because the technique could not be taught to animals and the domains needed to be active to draw in Malevolence. Velvet retained that power, making her first blessing a personal one; to devour Malevolence without risk and bolster her own power with it. The same as Innominat's.

"As Empyreans however," he then added with a teasing grin in Zaveid's direction, "we get to cheat again and have more than one blessing where seraphim only have one and most hellions or humans have none. I have three myself, the boost to peoples' resonance and the suppression being the other two. Just focus inward and meditate for a bit, it should come to you."

They took a break soon after, allowing Velvet to actually try as she was told. She even went so far as to close her draconic body's eyes, feeling the power thrumming in her veins. Power she realised she never wanted to explore too closely. She had seen herself as a monster, still did. What more did she need to know before? Now however, she embraced her nature and looked deeper. It did not take long until her senses adjusted and made her realise something else; there was power and even her very essence flowing outward. It suffused the surrounding air and plants and ground and even living beings, coursed through it all, then returned back to her from elsewhere. It remained a cycle, but one that continued beyond her body.

"Yeah, I can feel it now." That was Zaveid, calm and perhaps a little intrigued. She kept focussing and testing her own powers. Pushed on her surroundings and pulled, brightened and darkened the surroundings, tried to shift space so the plants grew in loops but failed at that.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in an almost monochrome world with the other two, yet knew this power was circulating through her. Crimson lines ran over reality and seemed to emphasize darker contours. Zaveid was looking himself over while Laphi eyed their surroundings. "On a guess," he mused, "my therions usually have hardly noticeable domains because they don't try to affect their surroundings. They just take Malevolence out, so one's senses wouldn't notice the domain being there." 

Weirdly enough though, she did not feel like truly commanding what was in her domain; rather the opposite, if she was perfectly honest. Laphi commented on it when she mentioned that, his own eyes closed: "I can feel it too, sister. Your very presence urges us to... to follow our own will, to not give in. Something along those lines." His eyes began to shine and he turned to Zaveid. "Can you help me test something? I'm almost certain her blessing strengthens the resistance to Malevolence in humans and seraphim both, even after they turned. We don't have a dragon to test it on, but-"

"But I'm right here, yeah." Zaveid eyed them both for a moment while the surrounding colours faded back to normal, then nodded. "Alright, I'm fine being your guinea pig for this one, it'll be huge if this is what it looks like." Velvet agreed, knowing that even small amounts of Malevolence could be dangerous to a seraph. Then Zaveid pointed at Laphi while the latter pulled on a few motes of Malevolence floating closeby. "But don't you dare pull your 'you're a dragon now' trick!" 

He just received an eyeroll from Laphi, who decided not to snark back and rather turned those motes into a small wisp. Not enough to immediately turn Zaveid, not even enough to harm him gravely, but definitely enough to have an effect. The wisp was blown right into Zaveid's face and dispersed, sinking into his form. A few seconds passed while both siblings watched the wind seraph, who blinked a few times, eyes widened by a fraction. "Huh, not a thing. I should've felt something, but I didn't." Then his almost ever-present grin returned and he winked at Velvet. "Congrats, looks like you're going to be our ticket out of dragonville."

"Yes and no," Laphi immediately shattered the idea with a sad shake of his head. "It's not a free pass, it can't be. Most likely is that it increases your resistance, not that it makes you immune. And I think I understand why." Then he studied Velvet who waited for his explanation, while Zaveid followed Laphi's gaze. "Seraphim gain their blessings upon birth, ignoring the Empyreans; it's more or less random, but often shapes the character of the person it belongs to. Velvet only developed her blessing after she already fully formed as a person and it's based off of who she is instead. It allows others to choose more freely, to not be so easily bound by the shackles of Malevolence, but they still have to fight on their own."

It felt right. She could not say why exactly, but this explanation just felt right to her. Everyone had to take flight on their own, all she could do, _should_ do was to ease the burden on their wings.

"It's still big," Zaveid answered after a moment, to agreement from both Crowes. "If you can expand your domain over the entire continent, this'll change the world."

"It would." Laphi frowned and turned back to her thoughtfully. "It just occurred to me that we need to figure out if prayer grants you power. You're not a seraph, so it might work differently for you."

"It's not prayers." Velvet enjoyed the owlish look her brother gave her, being the one to be lectured for once. She poked his nose. "Prayer doesn't mean anything to seraphim. It's deep and heartfelt emotions and thoughts toward a seraph. We just call it prayers because that's the same thing if genuine, just easier to explain." He nodded slowly and she continued with a hint of curiousity: "But what does it feel like?"

Zaveid took over there, making a sweeping motion with his hand. "It's a little odd. Like a soft whisper of thoughts and feelings not your own flowing into you from outside. Like, I got a few of my own and that huntress is definitely one of 'em now. She's happy to her core just for me giving her the good news. You feel anything like that?"

Velvet closed her eyes again and listened into herself, but found nothing. After a minute of quiet, she shook her head. "Nothing. Looks like I will have to do without. And good riddance, that takes a lot of potential work off my shoulders." Zaveid huffed at that but did not disagree.

A moment later, Laphi put a hand on his forehead and sighed. "We're dumb," he told the other two. "Sure, we had to check, but Velvet is a goddess of darkness. It makes perfect sense that she would work mainly on Malevolence, which is also something humans produce."

Zaveid snapped his fingers at that. "Yeah, you're right." Velvet agreed, too. They went on their way after that, with Velvet spending most of her time thinking while her brother talked quietly with Zaveid about whatever struck his fancy. Or he ran through the thigh-high grass of the meadows, or smelled whatever flowers grew around the area and tried to remember their names. 

A few more hellions crossed their path, but they were all aggressive and thus killed. Velvet or Laphicet bisected them with easy strokes of their blades, which more often than not ended with visible tears in the ground and them knowing they had to work on their fine control. They took whatever the few once-human beings among the bunch had on them before devouring them whole. Laphi by just absorbing them through his mouth, Velvet by gobbling them up with the maw in her hand.

It was odd to use her left arm again. A mental command, almost a reflex, and the flesh would grow outward while bandage-like skin rolled up and away. Her palm grew as big as her head and the entire thing turned black, jagged claws protruding from it while crimson veins ran up from her fingertips until right before her shoulder. Hundreds of teeth churned within her palm, taking the bodies she pushed in with the wet crunching of bones and all sorts of tendons. She could taste the blood but not the flesh, feel its texture, but nothing else. That had not changed either.

They noticed a large, spire-like building reaching high up in the distance, but Zaveid told them to ignore it for now. 

Once they were done with the hellions, Velvet decided to get on with lunch and sent Laphi to gather firewood; Zaveid was kept by her side to help turn some straight sticks into skewers. Unfortunately, she could not make any pots without clay and refused to form one out of mana; it was too much of a risk to have it fade away while she was cooking. The same for the skewers, though they formed mana-knives to carve them.

A few skewers in, Zaveid began to make conversation again. "So, eh, 'Minkkubi'?"

Velvet paused to look up for a moment and shrugged. "Laphi came up with it, a new name for a new Empyrean. I'm still Velvet to you, though." The silence only held for a moment before she felt compelled to add: "It's not my true name either way and I'm not going to tell you that one."

She almost missed how Zaveid shaved off half of his stick in one stroke; the knife fell to the ground and he raised his arms defensively at her. "Whoa now, I wasn't asking about that! We don't know each other nearly well enough to go that far!" Looking up again, Velvet thought he appeared almost flustered.

Then she recalled how much true names meant to seraphim and averted her gaze, sheepishly getting back to carving her stick and soon picking up another. "Sorry." He just grunted and they got back to work, this time with Velvet herself picking the conversation back up after a little while. "Actually, I do know your true name; what about that?"

"You do? Can't remember telling you."

"I was around when you told Eizen."

"Ahhh, yeah. That'd do it." He interrupted his work and she followed to meet his eyes. "Just don't use it then. If you learn it by being around, that's fine and all, but no one except the people who tell you personally or allow you to use their true name are who you're allowed to call by them."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The conversation stalled there and they both finished their work before Velvet got started on eviscerating her earlier catches. Laphi, her little angel, soon returned with a bunch of dry wood, some mushrooms, berries, herbs, and even a bit of clay he found.

Preparations took a good while longer than she was used to, having to do everything from scratch, but Velvet found enjoyment in the menial work. Once they ate however, she was once again reminded that not every scar of the past would fade. Just as she thought, her sense of taste was still gone. Its only exception was blood.

"I've gotta say, I was promised something outstanding," Zaveid joked halfway through while throwing a bone behind himself, grinning to take the sting out of his tease. "This is good, but not all that special to me."

Velvet just gave him an unamused look, then idly looked down at her hand. "Maybe I should make wind malakh stew next time."

"I thought you don't each machos?" A flat stare went to Laphi, who cheerfully undermined her counter and continued to fill his belly with boar and berries. Velvet shook her head and let him off the hook this once, then turned back to Zaveid.

"Give me some time to get set up properly and we'll talk again. Now, what's with that building over there?" She pointed toward the structure in the distance, which she could tell oozed Malevolence and that she only dropped the subject on earlier because Zaveid asked her to.

Seeing what she meant, the wind seraph sat a little straighter while pointing with his newly emptied skewer. "That's a crucible. I think that one's been there for centuries now, and there's a few others around the continent. Shepherds went in many times but they just can't manage to clear them out, that's how persistent the Malevolence in there is. Some Lords of Calamity use 'em to pit hellions against each other or to deal with prisoners, but mostly the first one. Loser gets eaten, winner eats the loser and gets stronger."

"So venomisation?"

He pointed at Laphi with a nod. "The one. They like their powerful but insane beasties better than when their hellions still have a mind."

The boy sighed and shook his head while looking at the structure, even interrupting his feasting for a moment to speak. "It's such a waste, though. Instead of putting in the time and effort to build structures of Malevolence that stay stable when the system is flooded with more, they just immediately throw more and more on top until they get something which can do nothing but kill and rampage." He cast a glance in Velvet's direction at that point, then lowered his head and muttered onto his skewer: "I'll admit some of my therions weren't _much_ different, but-" A bone flew past his face and he shut up.

By herself, Velvet decided to pay this crucible a visit later. Once she knew what she was dealing with.

"Anyway," Zaveid picked up the previous topic, "the Rolance Empire is most of what used to be Midgand and that's where we are. Lastonbell used to be some dingy little frontier village, I think we met there once-" "Stonebury?" "Yeah, that. City's got this giant belltower, that's unique around the entire continent, and it's the gateway city to Hyland. Lots of travel and trade going through there." Velvet was still with the belltower, faintly happy that the young apprentice she remembered meeting had achieved his goal after all. 

"That's the east, to the west is Pendrago and... well, that's basically Loegres with some changes in the layout. That and Lastonbell are the big cities here in Rolance, with some smaller townships and a bunch of villages strewn across the country. Lots of plains and most of the cattle on the continent, and a lotta horses." Zaveid leaned back a little and peered into the distance, where Velvet could spy a small herd. "Some of the farmers got corrupted too, but most of 'em stay with their cattle. That's basically what's around us."

Laphi nodded a few times while he chewed and Velvet let the new information run through her head as well. Pendrago and Lastonbell both sounded like good first stops. To see what remained of Loegres from her time, or to see what became of Stonebury. In the end, it was her brother who gave that small push she needed to make her decision when he offered his opinion quietly: "I'd like to see that belltower."

She just could not deny him. Lastonbell it was.


	7. Lastonbell

The next day was filled with mostly eventless travel, though they went through a heavy downpour for most of it. Neither of the three cared much for that, though they all noticed the Malevolence it carried. Zaveid supplied that the dark force could influence the weather and bring forth illness, which was useful to know.

They also stumbled over more hellions; the non-human ones they all killed and ate while about half of the few former humans they met were spared and sent on their way. The hostile and aggressive other half went the same way as the rest, which left the siblings with some money and other possessions; among them was a sturdy backpack, which Velvet immediately used to store her things in. Laphi's storage-arte was anchored at its bottom and sealed when not in use, then the furs and feathers she took off their other catches were neatly stacked inside. She could sell those at the next marketplace.

Velvet spent a lot of time working with her domain, expanding and retracting it intentionally instead of instinctually. Laphi spent most of that day playing with artes or talking to Zaveid about the area; their traveling companion knew a great many things on that end, which kept Laphi entertained for quite a while and drew a smile from Velvet even though she was soaked. By the end of the day, just as the rain let up, Zaveid made a sideway turn and raised his hand. "Well then, it's time for us to part ways. I'll be around for that cooking Laphicet promised me sometime."

It was abrupt, but not unexpected. Velvet nodded and offered a smile to Zaveid. "I figured you'd leave soon. Good luck out there."

Laphi made an agreeing noise at that. "Yes. Thank you for talking to me, telling me all those things. It was fun."

"Glad to hear it. See ya!"

And with that, he began to walk away; Velvet and Laphicet both stayed where they were until he had made some distance, then they turned to each other with matching, lenient smiles. "He's odd," Laphi told his sister.

"I'll say."

They carried through the night after parting from Zaveid, making decent speed now that it was just the two Empyreans. A journey that would normally take four to five days by horse, they made in two, with one night spent resting up. Aside from interacting with the hellions and occasional travelers they encountered off the roads, Velvet had some more time to work with her old and new powers. She also learned that Malevolence was easy to manipulate for her, though this remained a mostly useless power unless she wanted to corrupt others intentionally; that, Velvet knew, was a self-defeating idea. Turning a human into a hellion or a seraph into a dragon made them stronger, so this power did not work as an offensive tool.

On the night before they entered the city, she took inventory. Before her sat a few leather pouches of her own making, as well as a knapsack she ended up putting together in addition to the backpack they pillaged. She made bone needles for sewing as well, but that was the extent of it for now; there were also the parts she harvested, but even then it remained meagre. Velvet knew this was because they traveled most of the time, but she still disliked her lack of preparation.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, we have plenty of time," Laphi chirped casually, still playing with a bunch of miniaturised arte-components. "You did a lot with what little time you had. We can go a little slower and then it will all work out. If only this stupid-"

He kept muttering about whatever he was trying to put together. Velvet raised an eyebrow and scooted up to her brother, but could not make any sense of the complicated patterns. "What is this supposed to be?"

"Stasis." One of the circles threw sparks and another began to deform, so he quickly made the whole structure disperse and sighed. "I wanted to adjust one pocket so it keeps all the food and ingredients fresh by putting them in stasis. Or maybe by cooling them down a lot, I have to test if that works first. But somehow it keeps failing, so I need to go over it some more."

"Huh, that would be useful." Velvet chuckled lightly over her brother's muttering and pulled him against her side. "Take a break, Laphi. We don't need it immediately. Actually, how do you even make that stuff so fast?"

"Hm?" He relaxed and nestled into her side like he always did. "Oh, I remember bits and pieces about all those useful artes the exorcists used. There was no time or interest to learn them all, but I picked up a bit to start from. It would take me years to build something as big and specialised as the Caelix, but that little pocket space we have is much easier." He paused and peeked up at her thoughtfully. "But maybe I should start teaching you some seraphic artes soon. That might be fun, too. You were always a good student for Arthur... then again, maybe that was because he let you swing a sword around."

Sadly, the playful glare she gave him only made him stick out his tongue at her. So instead, she shrugged and teased back a little. "Well, it seems my baby brother is a genius after all." And there he was pouting, to which she allowed herself a victorious grin.

"Ugh, I hate when people call me that. I haven't earned it." He kept quiet for a little while, but then rubbed his cheek against her shoulder. "Say, how is your other body doing?"

It was an interesting question all the same, so Velvet let herself be distracted and focussed on her draconic form; it had not yet done much of anything. Minkkubi lazily moved her wings and rotated her neck. She could even paddle now. "I have forelegs, but no hindlegs. No tail either. And I haven't actually grown yet, either." It was odd to her, considering the size of Innominat.

"Don't worry, you will grow in time. Right now Minkkubi is little more than a newborn, if even that much. Focus on growing the rest out first."

"Yeah, I will."

They spent the rest of the night cuddled together, dozing.

**. .  
. .**

Morning started normally enough as both siblings got ready and on their way to Lastonbell, which they reached within the hour. A large wall greeted them and reached far into the distance, with watchtowers placed along its length. The road ended in a large gate, far ahead of them. There was no real queue at this time of day, so she could simply walk up to that same gate. Which was where her now recurring nemesis struck.

"Papers, please." The red-clad knight's face was invisible under his helmet, staring at Velvet as she stood there without having considered this. Of course she needed documentation, how could she make that stupid mistake _again_? When she stuttered for a few moments and Laphi already prepared to cast something, the knight made an understanding noise. "Ah, you don't have any, miss?"

Velvet was hesitant when she nodded, but strangely that just got her a nod from the knight. "Figures, we get a few of those most days." A gauntlet pointed toward a door to the right. "Simply walk through there and enter the second room to the left, we can have you registered there. It will take some time, though."

That was... convenient. Laphi lowered his hand while Velvet blinked away her confusion, then she nodded. "Thank you, sir. Um, if I may ask, why do you get so many people without papers?"

Seeing that there was no one else in line yet, the knight took the time to answer her, though not without a faint chuckle. "Well, miss, we can hardly march through every little village to register everyone. Don't have the manpower or the money, I hear. So they set it up to let people register themselves once they enter either Pendrago or Lastonbell, no harm if they aren't before that point. That's better than forcing people to leave their fields and travel here just to get their papers."

"Interesting," Laphi muttered at the side. "And a good way to prepare a census in a few years, when everyone not a newborn has been to the city at least once."

Velvet did not react to her brother's comment and nodded. "I see, that makes sense. Thank you for your time, sir."

"It was a pleasure, miss. Now off you go." She was waved aside and quickly strolled through the door she was told while a small caravan began to roll in.

As she made to enter the mostly empty room however, Laphi tapped her shoulder. "I'm going ahead," he told Velvet with a grin. "Have fun!" And off he was, before she could even think to protest.

**. .  
. .**

Laphicet felt oddly excited, wandering the streets on his own; there was just so much going on that he did not even home in on the belltower immediately. He could see workers putting up the foundation for a building while others tore down a ruin right next to it; he figured it burned down. Shopkeepers traded and haggled already despite the early hour.

A merchant caravan moved past him after a while and his senses tingled. Looking up, Laphi found a seraph sitting on the foremost cart's roof, head turned his way. The man was dressed sharply with a green shirt under a black jacket, brown gloves, and a fancy top hat. His eyes remained hidden behind long, greenish white bangs; that did not stop him from giving Laphicet a nod in passing, which he returned after a moment. Now Laphi wanted a top hat. He just knew it would look great on him.

Shaking the short encounter from his head, he moved on; there were a few other seraphim about, those more dressed like the locals and giving him friendly waves when they noticed him. He waved back, then a gaggle of playing children ran right past him and caught his attention. He watched them for a moment, smiling at how easy they took their life but also sad he could not join. He was a malak, so they could not see him.

He was, however, not the only one staring at the group with longing. A girl, human girl, sat some distance away from the town square on a bench while wringing her hands in her light blue skirt. She could not be much older than he looked, twelve, maybe thirteen. She was petite, almost gangly and a little odd-looking even while her eyes followed the playing children around. Laphi made a few steps in her direction without even realising.

Her hair was the colour of spun gold, if shorter than those of the other girls around. That, too, was similar to Laphicet's own, if far stronger in its tone. A plain white blouse set a contrast to how pretty her hair looked. He could not put his finger on what about her caught his attention beside the looks she threw the other children. Either way, he could empathise with this girl; whatever stopped her from joining them, she did want to. He knew that feeling so, so well.

Almost without thinking, he wandered over and sat down on the same bench, right next to her. Maybe his presence would spend her some comfort, even if she did not know he was there. A few seconds passed in silence, but then the girl averted her gaze. First toward the ground, then toward the side where he sat, then up and... it remained right on his face. Laphi blinked, she talked to him: "Oh, I haven't seen you here before. Are you with one of the caravans?" He blinked again, then pointed at himself just to make sure. The girl nodded with a soft tilt of her head. "Yes, you. Is something wrong?"

Laphi shook his head. "No, no. Just surprised is all. I'm traveling with my sister, but she got held up elsewhere. Lastonbell is really great, there are just so many people!" Once he got over his stupor, he began to talk animatedly and motioned for their surroundings. "I've never seen such a big market before and I wanna go look at the belltower later, do you know how it works? Are there other interesting places to visit?"

The girl laughed quietly and a shy smile wormed its way onto her face. "You're weird," she told Laphicet earnestly before answering his questions: "I don't know how the belltower works, but there's lots of fun places around town. I can show you later if-" "Hey, look!"

The call came from the side and drew attention from both to another girl their age, who was pointing over to them. "Its Maggie talking to herself again!"

Laphi blinked once again while there was some sparse laughter. The girl by his side appeared confused at first, but then her eyes widened and returned to him. "You're....?"

Meanwhile, his gaze lay on the other children, who left another taunt or two before going back to playing on their own. A picture was starting to form and he turned back to the girl. "Maggie, was it?"

"Margaret, actually. So, you're... you're a seraph?" She fidgeted a little, trying not to meet his eyes but being too curious to avert her gaze entirely. Laphi nodded and she bunched up her skirts as her hands clawed into them. "Sorry, I didn't notice. I'm, well... no one believes me."

"So I saw. Could you tell the other children something from me?"

"Huh?"

"Tell them they either apologise for laughing at you, or I douse them."

"H-Huh?"

Laphi held her gaze evenly and began to produce a minor water arte. Not dangerous, just uncomfortable; it was a warm day after all. He let the circle spin over his palm. "Please tell them that. I don't like people who treat others badly."

"It's fine, really. I'm used to-" "Margaret. Please."

She shut up and fidgeted harder, but then got up and took a deep breath before wandering over. Laphi followed to where the other children were playing some kind of game with a straw ball, kicking it back and forth. Then it landed at Margaret's foot and they finally noticed her. She did not back down from the displeased looks and pointed to her side. "Um, he says-" "Yeah, yeah."

One of the boys rolled his eyes and talked over her, already moving to get their ball back. "We all know the story, they're really seraphim and you aren't cra-uuumph!" The rest was drowned out by the equivalent of several buckets of water emptying onto him from above. It splashed down to the ground all around the dark-haired boy, soaking his clothes and creating a small puddle all around him. Some splashes hit the surrounding children and left wet spots on their trousers and skirts, one girl squeaking in surprise.

Silence reigned among the children and even a few passing adults turned to watch the spectacle. Margaret solemnly pointed to where Laphicet stood again. "That's what he said. 'Either you apologise for laughing, or you get doused'."

Laphi was already setting up his arte again when the boy he picked next quickly bowed his head. "I'm sorry for not believing you, Maggie! And for laughing at you!"

Huh. He cancelled the arte, though a drop of water hit that boy's neck and he fearfully looked up before heaving a sigh of relief when nothing else happened. Others followed with the apologies, though one of the girls who refused to relent got an impromptu shower as well.

It took minutes to crush any doubt that Margaret was speaking to a seraph, which made him wonder just why none of the locals ever did anything like that. When he asked once they got back to sitting together, she fidgeted again. "It's, uh, they either said they didn't want to scare the others or I got them not to. I didn't think it would actually work when no one believed me before. Just because I said the sanctuary is empty...."She trailed off and sighed, then turned her gaze back to Laphicet. "Can you tell me more about your travels? I'd love to travel, but I need to help momma at the inn and we don't have the money for a teacher to learn swordfighting, either." She drooped quite a bit as she explained and Laphi understood.

"I get how you feel, I always wanted to travel too, but we only got to it not long ago. Lastonbell is our first stop."

"Oh."

She drooped further and Laphicet sighed, then gave her hand a quick pat. "I'm sorry I can't tell you much right now, but I'm sure we will come back here and then I'll tell you everything. And, hm. Hold on." He had already helped this girl out a lot, but Velvet was around and good with a blade. She could teach. Maybe.

Before he got to mention that however, someone cleared her throat. Speak of the devil; Velvet stood next to them with her arms crossed. "I heard rumours that a kind seraph gave someone a public bath. You wouldn't happen to know who that was, would you?"

Laphicet reacted immediately and in the only way he could: "Nope, haven't seen any seraphim around here." He turned to Margaret with a silly grin. "Have you?" She stared at him, but then shook her head shakily as she caught on. Velvet sighed at that.

"So it was you. We are going to have a talk about that later."

"Um, ma'am?" Margaret piped up and drew Velvet's attention from him; once she did, the girl continued with only the slightest bit of fear despite the fact Velvet was as imposing as always. "He was just trying to help me, because no one believed I can see seraphim." The stern expression softened immediately and he knew the immediate danger was over. Margaret followed up: "So you can see them, too?"

"I can. Why am I even surprised that I find him making friends already? I'm Velvet." She held out her hand with a smile and Margaret shook, giving her own name. "There aren't that many who can see the seraphim. You're a special girl, Margaret."

"I know. Momma says I'm blessed, but I dunno. You talk a little funny." The last part seemed to have just come out unintentionally, seeing how the girl grimaced; Laphicet just shrugged at that. He noticed people talking weirdly as well, so that was probably a shift in the language over time.

To distract from the slip, he poked his sister with another question: "Did it really go that fast?"

"Hm?" She needed a moment to realise he meant the registration, then shrugged. "Kind of. They didn't ask all that many question after I told them what happened to Aball, just what they needed to fill everything out and send me on my way." He almost grinned, but managed to keep his expression calm. That was a devious way of getting around difficult questions. No one would even check if there was a small village named Aball.

Margaret's eyed them curiously, but was distracted. "Your arm! Are you alright? There's an apothecary just down the street if you need medicine!" They both followed her wide-eyed gaze to the bandaged limb, wondering how to explain it. Velvet shook her head lightly.

"No need, but thank you for your concern. My arm is mostly healed up, but I got to like the look of these." She flexed the oddly formed skin a little and offered a winning smile, then pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "Anyway, we're new to the city. How about you show us around for some pocket money?"

"Of course!"

**. .  
. .**

Finding Margaret had been great luck on Laphi's part. The girl quickly took a liking to Velvet, who had to admit to herself that the feeling was mutual. She was young and likely a late bloomer, considering how small and underdeveloped she still was. But she had a quick wit and keen eyes, helping Velvet to haggle with the merchants through clever comments from the side. Some decent sums changed hands for the furs and feathers she accumulated.

After the marketplace, they were shown around the barracks, the town's living quarter, various fabled spots like the belltower, the commercial district that held the actual shops and blacksmiths and others, and finally to her family's inn. Velvet had to admire her guide's self-control; there was not even a bit of sheepishness or smugness as she ushered them in the door with her sneaky self-advertising. Not that Velvet minded, she needed a place to stay anyway. Perhaps for a week or so, to explore the city a little. The money they took off hellions and what she got earlier should keep them afloat for a while.

As they entered, they were greeted by a middle-aged woman with a friendly smile and almost the same golden blonde hair as her daughter, if a few shades darker. Her figure was more womanly and a little plump, but Velvet figured that the simple brown dress she wore hid more muscle than fat. She greeted the new guest warmly. "Welcome to Randgriz Inn! I see you already met my daughter."

Velvet nodded, but Margaret was faster and pulled her mother aside to chatter at her excitedly. Smiling, she took a seat at the tavern portion to wait; seeing that the sun had yet to sink, the bar lay empty except for an elderly man who quietly drank his beer. It was a cozy taproom, decked out in wood and with a decent assortment of spirits in the rows at the back. It took a few minutes until mother and daughter joined her, with Laphi standing by Velvet's side. She watched them curiously and took note how both eyed the sword strapped to her hip. The mother thoughtfully, the daughter almost hungrily. It was a look she had seen on Margaret a few times so far, though sometimes it had felt more calculating.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the older woman started when Velvet rose to meet her. "I'm Cynthia Randgriz, the owner of this inn. Margaret tells me you are new in town and need a place to stay; I'm sure you're tired after everything that happened today."

"Velvet Crowe, a pleasure," she introduced herself in turn when Cynthia paused there; the older woman seemed to consider something. Velvet thought to leave it unadressed, but ultimately decided to poke whatever the issue was. "I can tell you're thinking of something else. What's the matter?"

This earned her another thoughtful look, then Cynthia turned to her daughter. "I think we need some more water. Be a dear and get some from the well, yes?"

"On it!" And off the girl was, with Laphi wandering after her curiously.

Velvet's attention went back to Cynthia, who was kneading her hands self-conciously but did not avert her gaze. "Well, I have to ask: that sword you carry, that is not just for show, yes? You are trained to use it?"

One eyebrow rose, but she nodded. Cynthia nodded back and slid her hands under the table where Velvet could no longer see them. "Well, I was hoping to offer you some... alternative payment for room and board." Things began to make sense now. "You see, my little girl always dreamed of traveling the world, but I just can't allow it if she doesn't even know how to defend herself. So if you could teach her a little, while you're here, that would be more than enough."

A smile blossomed on Velvet's face and she could not help but chuckle. "Out of curiousity, which of you two thought of that little deal? With what I saw of Margaret so far, she worked it out after seeing my sword for the first time."

Her comment brought a smile to the older woman as well, who nodded gently. "She was always a driven and smart girl," Cynthia praised. "I wish I could have sent her to Pendrago for schooling, but we just don't have the money." She did not say whether the girl came up with it, but Velvet took it that way and considered her answer.

It would be a bad trade for her, she knew that much; lessons in swordsmanship did not come cheap in any age, especially from someone competent. Something struck her curiousity, though. "What about the knight orders?" Which she only heard about earlier. "They do take women into their ranks, so why not send her there to learn?"

"I...." Cynthia fidgeted, but shook her head resolutely. "No. A thousand times no. You hear rumours, miss Crowe. People whisper that war is coming again, that Hyland will engage our troops again. I won't, I can't-" She stopped when Velvet held out a hand in understanding.

"I get what you mean. It was a stupid question, I should have guessed that." Of course a mother would not want to risk her child being sent to war. She leaned back and took in this woman. It was on her daughter's suggestion, but she was willing to go along with it. Someone who had little means to herself yet desired for her child to be happy. Yes, it would be a bad trade for Velvet, but did she really have to care about that? 

Deep beneath the Meadow of Triumph, her draconic body opened its maw wide in a yawn and turned around to swim upside down for a change.

Velvet was an Empyrean now. She could do as she pleased. "You're willing to let her go if she learns?"

Cynthia averted her gaze for a moment, but then forced it back with clear conviction. "I heard some of the knights complain about their basic training and they're older than my Maggie. If she makes it through that, she earned it. No matter how much I'd rather keep her here."

Velvet considered her words for a moment, then she grinned and held out a hand. "You've got yourself a deal. I will stay here whenever I pass by in Lastonbell on my travels and take some time to teach your daughter every day. I'm not going to go easy on her and she will spend the time I'm away practicing what she learned." Her offered hand was taken and they shook. Were Velvet not herself good at reading people, she would have missed how relieved Cynthia was about her proposal being accepted. She received a faint yet honest smile.

Velvet left Cynthia there to wait for her daughter and to deliver the good news; meanwhile, she would head out once more to procure a few necessities. By herself, she mused how nice it felt to make people smile; that was a feeling she had long since forgotten. Perhaps she would appreciate having become a goddess after all.


	8. Claudin's Line Unbroken

The bright smile was a set fixture on Margaret's face after she heard the good news. Laphicet congratulated her and then settled down to wait for his sister's return. Margaret went to do some work around the place to distract herself and he decided to leave her be with her joy, instead trying to finally get his stasis-enchantment to work.

The elderly man at the bar left after a time and others entered, but he gave them little more than a glance; he simply needed to find the correct mana structure to slow decay, but nothing short of a complicated and convoluted double-helix even began to work. Even those still warped the space inside and tore at whatever was placed into stasis. He had already given up on ever achieving a field that would put a living being in stasis without killing it, but now he was beginning to get frustrated.

The taproom began to fill up by the time his sister returned; Laphi had not made any actual progress and left his arte be with a sigh, only then noticing the receding light levels. For once in his life however, he was not the happiest person in the room to see Velvet step in; Margaret appeared to have lain in ambush, for she was on her within moments and peppered her with questions. When she could start, how long Velvet would stay, so on. The siblings exchanged an amused look at that.

"Do you have a backyard, or some other place where we have some room?"

"Oh, yes! This way, come!" 

He followed with a wry grin as Velvet let herself be led through the inn's large structure, toward a staff area, where a maid crossed their path and merely dodged them with a knowing smile; the news spread like wildfire due to Margaret's giddiness. She led them out into a fenced off backyard, which appeared to be used for larger food deliveries and the like, being paved with even cobblestone and offering enough space for a half dozen people to move in comfortably. The fence reached higher than Velvet was tall, which she seemed to appreciate. "This will do," she gave her own assessment a moment after Laphicet was done taking it all in. She put down her looted backpack and rummaged through it while Margaret waited, almost vibrating in place and looking a small push away from crawling in there herself to look for whatever Velvet was searching.

Laphicet had no such restraints; he stepped next to his sister and peeked over her shoulder to find a bundle of clothes up top. That made sense, as well as the other necessities. What his sister finally produced, however, was a belt with attached scabbard; glancing at Margaret told him that the girl's gaze was focussed on the sword's hilt the moment she saw it. Velvet held it out to her calmly, lecturing at once: "This is a wooden blade you're going to use for practice. You're not going to so much as touch an actual one until you are proficient with it, are we clear?"

Margaret took it with clear reverence. "Yes, teacher!"

"Good, now- stop." Margaret was in the process of drawing the sword out of its scabbard but halted, blinking at Velvet who frowned ever so slightly. Laphi took a seat at the side and waited for where this was going. "The first thing you will learn is not how to draw a sword, but how to put it on properly." What followed was a series of repetitions in which Velvet demonstrated how to tie the belt and the height at which it had to sit so as to not pose problems. She let Margaret practice the motions a few times after tying the blade to her waist the first time, ignoring the protest that the girl knew how to work with a belt.

He could not help but laugh in the sanctity of his own mind; Margaret's disappointment and impatience were obvious. Her mother, Cynthia, wandered off after a few minutes of discreet observation. After attaching the sword came actually drawing it. Which, once again, Velvet ordered her student to do repeatedly; drawing and sheathing, both of which happened only with some bumps and fiddling respectively; Laphicet, who was used to Arthur's fluid drawing of a blade, saw just how great the difference was. 

It took about half an hour for Margaret to stomp her foot. "Ahh, how many more of these things do I have to do before we start with the actual lesson?!"

Her outburst received an unamused stare and the girl wilted immediately, apologising with a soft voice. Velvet just shook her head, voice stern as she explained: "Everything is part of the lesson. How to get the sharp edge into your enemy is no more than half of what you need to know, perhaps even less. You need the right footwork, the muscles, and the endurance to not die. You need knowledge and even a bit of philosophy."

Laphicet's eyes widened as he realised just what she was going to do. And he was intrigued, curious, wanting to try as well in that very moment. He never got much of a chance to even make the attempt in his old life, so he got up now and formed a blunt sword of his own to join with Margaret; Velvet just gave him an odd look but did not shoo him away. Margaret's eyes grew a little wide, but she said nothing either. He usually got by on overwhelming force and speed, as well as the bits he learned from Arthur in what little time they had after his reincarnation, but he knew that was a bad habit.

"Either way," Velvet continued then, glancing to where the shadows kept growing longer. "There isn't much time left today, so we won't have a full lesson until tomorrow anyway. I'm starting out with the things you will need most today. After what we already have... we continue with the five maxims my own teacher hammered into me when I started. Listen well and remember them; you will know them inside and out by the time I leave."

Just like he thought. Margaret tensed up and stood at attention, an action which Laphicet mimicked somewhat; he already knew what would follow, could recite the first four from memory just through osmosis, but he listened raptly anyway. 

"First: Plans must be solid, reactions flexible. Repeat it."

They both dutifully spoke her words back at her and Velvet nodded. Laphicet could not help but smile at the thought of what she would do to Margaret; his sister had to recite all of those maxims before bed and after every meal for months until they burned themselves into her mind.

"Second: Know your enemy, and strike them where they are weak."

They repeated this one without prompt, which drew a faint smile. The shadows dancing over her face made that appear a lot more sinister than she meant it, though. Margaret did not notice, enraptured as she was.

"Third: Never waver once your sword is drawn. Control your feelings to control the tide of battle."

As before, they spoke the words back at her; this time Laphicet threw a sly grin at his sister however, knowing that this was the maxim she had the greatest difficulty with herself. She rolled her eyes, having gotten the message.

"Fourth: Never let your guard down, even when victorious."

Another repetition and Velvet nodded; in the longer pause however, Margaret, turned her gaze to her hands in wonder. "I, I think I get them. They just feel... _right_. I already forgot numbers two and three, but I promise I will learn them all soon."

"See that you do. I want you to repeat them to yourself at every toll of the bell." As if on cue, the bell's distant gong filled the air nine times; Margaret nodded vigorously but needed an expectant look from her teacher to realise she had to start already. True to her words, she only remembered the first and fourth maxim. Laphi added the other two afterward.

"Okay, I think I have them. What's the fifth?" The question prompted Velvet to close her eyes for a moment, posture shifting. It almost appeared as if she was about to snarl, but she remained calm. When her lids opened back up, Margaret and Laphi both were rooted in place by her stare's intensity. 

"Don't give in to fear. Don't despair, no matter what." 

She enunciated each word slowly, with a calm that belied steel. Boy and girl stayed silent for long moments after she finished, but then they repeated the fifth maxim back at her. The following, pregnant pause lasted for a while... until Margaret lowered her head in shame. "I forgot the first maxim again. And half of the third."

Velvet stared down at her befuddled, but then she huffed and shook her head at the situation. Laphicet did much the same, though he had an idea: "Maybe you should write them down so you can read them later?"

Surprisingly however, this got him a confused look from the girl. "I'm a peasant, I can't read. Or write. I can do math, but that's it." Both siblings eyed her owlishly and she blinked, then looked between them. "Wait, you can? Both of you?"

Velvet sighed and gave her brother a look. "I'll teach her in the mornings, you get her in the evenings." He nodded at that without need for any clarification while Margaret stared at the both of them; her eyes only widened further when Velvet addressed her: "Starting tomorrow, you will learn to read and write."

It seemed that skill had been more common during their time; then again, Laphi thought, he and Velvet only knew it because Arthur taught them. Celica had been illiterate, much like the rest of Aball except a few people. He found it a shame that so many were unable to make use of the written word, past and present.

Night truly began to fall at that point, drawing a sigh from Velvet. "This will do for today," she declared. "We're starting early tomorrow, so don't stay up too late." She ushered the girl back inside and got no backtalk at all, probably because Margaret was still reeling from the new development. Laphi sympathised with her, but did not stop. He followed Velvet as she first talked to Cynthia and then walked to 'her' room which was actually theirs. The clothes he saw in her pack came out now and she spread them on the bed. "I bought a few different things so we can pick what we like and have some spares. Better sooner rather than later, before my focus slips."

"Good idea. At least we know that humans can still see the clothes you weave, imagine if they couldn't." He got a nasty look from Velvet, but only stuck out his tongue and started to go through the things in his size. His sister followed soon after and he found his thoughts idling on the last few hours. "Who would have thought that you end up teaching someone else one day?"

"No one, not even me. But if she wants it so much, I can at least try." Velvet then muttered something about putting together a training dummy before they left town. She then proceeded to pick an outfit much like her mana-crafted one, except that the tunic was dark brown and she wore actual pants of a similar colour underneath. Her boots were sturdy leather, though nowhere near as sharp or blade-carrying as those she used to wear. A simple red ribbon bound Velvet's long, raven hair into a ponytail, which he vowed he would turn back into a braid before the night was out.

Laphicet just picked up a white shirt that fit him well enough and similar pants to those his sister wore, if smaller. He did not need actual boots, but the sensation of wearing footwear that sturdy made him decide to keep them on. Thankfully, even material items worn by a seraph would not be seen. He had no idea why, but he did not much care either. Neither of them would need to sleep that night, but they had to pretend; Laphi knew he would use that time to prepare a few things for Margaret. He was surprisingly giddy to teach and figured that his sister felt the same.

Velvet had certainly made plans; the next day, she took a bleary-eyed Margaret out of her comfortable bed soon after the sun first revealed its shining face to Lastonbell. She grumbled and moaned, but woke up nonetheless and recited at least the first and second maxim from memory when the bell tolled. It was a start.

She started them slowly, let Margaret wake up some more by having her do a few stretches to get limber, made her draw and sheathe a few times. When the girl appeared ready to absorb knowledge, Velvet began: "The style I will teach you consists of six basic stances and a number of more advanced techniques that all build on those basics. You will spend the first few months building up the muscles you need and internalising those six stances. Everything builds on them and they will be the most important tools at your disposal."

Her first student nodded just as fervently as she had the previous evening. Velvet reserved her judgement for another day and began to describe the first stance in detail; it was just a straight slashing motion at the end of the day, but it had to be completely straight and required some proper footwork. As she did, Laphi began to perform that same stance somewhat shaky but passably; it was a well-enough demonstration, though his blade shuddered a little even as he swung.

"Um, Velvet?" Her attention turned back to Margaret after she gave her brother a few comments on how to improve; the wide-eyed girl was obviously hopeful. "Can't you show them to us, too?"

Now there was another problem, one she had hoped to get around. Velvet sighed and shook her head. "Maybe some of the basics, but not more. I remember all the things I was taught, but my body just moves on its own and does something else, something more my own. And I can't teach you that because that downward slash can come out like so," she drew her sword in a fluid motion, then slashed down at an angle, "like so," the blade rose and came down again, "or like so," and she twirled around on her heel, delivered a straight kick into the air with her other foot to use the momentum, then followed that with an angled slash in the same direction. "And none of this is technically part of the original style. I just play it by ear and decide what to do as I fight."

"Ohhh!"

Margaret appeared more impressed by the precise and fast motions, but Velvet hoped her point was understood. She added to it regardless, a little sheepish for that failing on her part. "So I'd rather get into the habit of explaining them to you instead of demonstrating; I can't do that for long. You don't need to worry too much," she reassured after a moment of thought, "they're all basics after all. Downward swing, upward swing, block, dodge, turn, kick."

"The original style is like clockwork," Laphi chimed in with a sly grin. He motioned at Velvet and she already grew a little annoyed. "Velvet's own version is more about wild and chaotic combat, almost the total opposite." He was right, but he did not have to phrase it like this.

"Essentially, yes. Now it's your turn, Margaret. Do you want me to explain again?" Margaret nodded and received the instructions a second time, closing her eyes to let them sink in. Velvet waited once she was done, watched the minute changes in her student's posture. Her feet were put further apart, her center of gravity lowered, she held the handle firmly with both hands. Then she raised her arms slowly but with varying speed... and brought the blade down in a perfect downward slash as she made a half-step forward. The strength of her entire body went into it and a quiet woosh of displaced air hit Velvet's ears.

Margaret did not stumble forward or backward, she remained balanced as she returned to her original posture. She did not lose her sword. Eyes now open, she waited for Velvet's verdict.

Meanwhile, Velvet herself was confused. "Again." 

The motion repeated, then again, then again. Laphi peered at Margaret as well once he realised what was going on; he balanced himself by being able to fly, Velvet knew that. Margaret could not, yet she remained perfectly on her feet.

"Look at that," she muttered more to herself, impressed. "we won't need months if this wasn't just a fluke. Laphi, keep practicing the first stance. Margaret, to me." Both children did as they were told and Velvet finally gave her verdict: "You were a little shaky on raising the blade, but everything afterward was close to perfect. We're doing another for today and you will practice those two." She began to explain how to perform the upward swing right after and tried not to get too affected by Margaret's bright grin.

Later that afternoon, Velvet sat together with Cynthia after another trip through Lastonbell. Margaret worked upstairs at cleaning a room and Laphi wandered off to explore on his own, leaving Velvet in the taproom with Cynthia as the other woman prepared for the evening rush; much as she expected however, the obvious question was soon asked: "How is she doing?"

Velvet took a sip from the water she was offered and considered; a smile broke through her calm facade rather quickly. "So far, it looks like she's a natural," she revealed. "My brother started learning a while ago, but she is already better than him at what I showed her so far. She's tutoring him, even. She took to it like a fish to water."

Cynthia's eyes widened slightly, torn between joy and resignation. "Truly?"

"Yes, I was quite surprised. But you don't need to worry about her running off for adventure anytime soon, these things take time." Velvet motioned for herself. "A proper form only takes her so far. She will have to exercise daily beside the actual training to build up stamina, and that for a long time. It helps that she already lives an active life, but that isn't enough for what she wants to be." The older woman nodded along slowly, taking it all in while Velvet took another sip and continued: "I started my own training when I was ten. The first time I was allowed to go out and fight anything was at fourteen. Margaret is older than I was and good at what she does, so in the very best case I'd say two years. She is still slow and a little shaky, but that's normal for a beginner."

"I see." There was silence, though Cynthia's relieved smile did not go unnoticed; she put a hand over her heart for a moment and turned her attention to Velvet herself with a hint of curiousity. "I was wondering, miss Crowe. Or Velvet, if I may?" The younger woman nodded and she continued: "I was wondering, you said your 'brother' is learning with Maggie. Is that something which happens... often? For a seraph and a human to be siblings? How does it work?"

This was not quite where she had expected the conversation to go; at least Margaret had not shared that bit with her mother yet, even though she asked before as well. Velvet lowered her gaze to the table and shrugged, a pang of leftover pain striking her chest. "It doesn't, normally. Most seraphim are born from pure mana in specific locations around the world. Some, like Laphi, are reincarnated from a human after their death." Cynthia's eyes widened even though Velvet kept speaking: "Though those don't keep the memories of their previous life in most cases."

"Oh, oh no. I am so sorry." Cynthia's voice was almost toneless and she covered her mouth with one hand. "I wasn't thinking-" "It's fine."

The older woman cut herself off while the younger one let out a deep breath. "It's been a while ago. I... dealt with it all. And I still have my Laphi." There was so much more to it, but she did not want to discuss any of it with a near-stranger. Velvet just put on a weak smile. "I'm fine."

The first week of her stay in Lastonbell passed rather quickly after that, though there were two more rainstorms rolling over the city in as many days. Be it outside or inside however, Margaret soaked in the remaining basics like a sponge and Velvet told her to practice them for an hour every day once her and Laphi left town. She introduced the girl to several exercises she had to go through herself, to strengthen her arms, legs, stomach, and other important muscles. Margaret started on them all without complaint, though she quickly began to whine.

"Start slow," Velvet told her not much later. "Start slow and ramp it up a notch whenever you start to feel comfortable, until you have a good workout. You don't need the strength and endurance right now, you have time."

Margaret also learned to read in the evenings, which progressed quite nicely as well; Laphi had her write all the characters on a chalk board they procured and read to her from a book they got for cheap.

The second week, she decided to cover two of the more advanced stances. Flowing from upward swing to downward swing and combining them into a one-two combination, as well as going from a turn into an upward swing immediately. Again, Margaret did well even if this took her a bit longer to get through. 

As the days went by however, Velvet could not help but feel a little odd. Something which was not because of the sudden storm uprooting half a forest fifty kilometres to the north. No, it was because of what her student learned and did. These were Artorius' teachings; the same style, the same motions, performed by a girl younger than herself. The art of the blade as it had been devised and perfected by King Claudin Asgard himself, the man who taught Arthur everything. And yet they were performed so well by this child, who wore any expression between a bright smile and a frown of concentration as she practiced. 

This age would see their accomplishments once more, if Margaret's early achievements were any indication.

Toward the end of that second week, Laphi nudged his sister's side as they were dozing next to each other. "If need be, she would make a good shepherd," he suggested. Velvet just shrugged at that, unsure whether they should make plans that far into the future. But she knew they would have to at some point. Laphi had begun to eavesdrop on the bar's patrons, which gave them a few trickles of useful information. He also went to talk to the native seraphim, for much the same result; from there they also learned that the seraphim kept culling local hellion populations, which helped lower the amount of Malevolence near most cities and villages.

After some more thought, she nudged him back. "I guess I have to get used to thinking strategically. You're probably better at this than me, so you can be in charge of our long-term plans."

He nudged her in turn and she had to chuckle. "Not true, you're decent. You led a one-ship guerilla campaign against an empire. You're just unused to the change in perspective."

That was not entirely wrong, though she disagreed with his assessment and nudged him once again to keep the little game going. "I'm good enough at leading small groups of people myself, but I don't think I'll be good at this. You have the smarts to keep something bigger running." Laphi hummed and they both fell quiet to think for a while. In the end, Velvet sighed and nudged her brother again: "We still have to decide just what exactly we even want to do. I guess there's still some time before we need to commit, but we can start laying the groundwork on the way if we have a basic idea soon."

She was nudged back almost immediately and winced slightly from the force of his elbow. "You're right, but I don't have any real ideas right now. How about we talk it out tomorrow?"

"Good idea." Soon after, the two gods fell into a dreamless slumber, leaning shoulder to shoulder.

That following day marked the beginning of the third week after they descended from the heavens. It was also, by Velvet's choice, the final day of their stay in Lastonbell for the time being. Margaret's expression fell harshly when Velvet explained their imminent departure during breakfast with the innkeeper and her daughter; both of them appeared unhappy, but they understood.

"It's such a shame," Cynthia noted with a faint smile after some time. "You are such a wonderful customer, cleaning your own room better than most of us could and even helping in the kitchen from time to time. I would hire you if you didn't want to leave."

Both children laughed at that and Velvet had to smile, too. "I'm just used to doing chores from home," she brushed off the praise. "It's relaxing." Then she turned to Margaret. "And don't worry about me. We will be around every once in a while."

"Promise?"

"...promise." It seemed to appease the girl at least somewhat, though giving her word made Velvet a little uncomfortable for what the future may bring. She rather changed the subject and poked her cheek. "Maybe you get an audience once scary old me isn't around anymore. I wonder how many of the other children are peeking when you're training."

"Quite a few," Laphi provided without prompting. "Word about this got around pretty quickly." They did notice a few of them peeking over the fence on the last few mornings; Velvet just chuckled and Cynthia joined, though the latter rather about the first comment and not Laphi's addition. It made sense, though; she took Margaret running, among other things. They could not have kept this a secret even if they tried.

Margaret fidgeted a little, but soon her eyes went back to lie on the table. "It's still... I don't know. You get to go wherever you want, whenever you want. I'd like to do that, too." 

The siblings exchanged a glance at that, but Velvet did not feel like pointing out that kind of freedom required a certain amount of dead relatives and friends. "I do get it," Laphi told his friend quietly, "but you will get there, too. Don't worry." 

Only Velvet saw because she paid attention, but in that moment Laphi's eyes widened fractionally and he formed unspoken words with his mouth. Then his expression relaxed and he went back to eating cheerfully. It took until the evening for her to find out what he had thought of; after a lonely meal in the taproom that she could not taste and which she spent making a list of their current goals and how to achieve them. And after Laphi returned from tutoring Margaret once more.

"Did she finally stop getting shy when you two are alone?" Laphi only shrugged and she dropped the subject there. Teasing him about that got old a while ago, especially when it became clear this was less a crush and more a general awkwardness around a cute boy that Margaret had.

"I was thinking since earlier," her brother started without preamble once no further teasing happened. "It kind of slipped my mind so far, but I can set down teleportation artes; they don't make for constant travel back and forth, but singular journeys should be fine." Velvet listened curiously and let him explain, although the merits were obvious to her as well. "If we can hide one near Lastonbell and put down another after we reach Pendrago, we can come back here instantly. And after that, too; when we're leaving Rolance."

She immediately understood and liked that idea. She liked it a lot.

"We will do that right after leaving the city tomorrow," Velvet decided, receiving a nod from Laphi; he then peered at the sheet of parchment now placed on the ground between them and she explained it: "Beside that, I made a list of what we need. Information, allies and influence, a base of operations, and resources; in that order, too. With teleportation, we can move quickly over the entire continent once we have set up."

"And gather information everywhere without losing time," Laphi agreed when Velvet made a pause. He increased the light shining down a little to peer at the page. "It's definitely worth the mana to power them, not that I am lacking either way. Hm." A pause as she waited for him to complete his thought; Laphi tapped the 'base of operations' on her list. "We could set up a base on my other body. There is definitely enough space there and _no one_ is going to find it."

Velvet opened her mouth to disagree, but shut it again when she realised that idea had merit. She scribbled a note behind that bullet point. "We will keep it in mind and see if it's viable later."

"Alright." Another appraisal was given to the parchment, then Laphi studied his sister. "I still wonder what we're going to do, in general I mean. With what we want and need, the best option might be to form an actual organisation. Find a source of income, recruit people to do some of the work for us, that kind of thing."

He had a point, but Velvet frowned nonetheless. "You're not wrong, but growing an organisation from the ground up takes too long right now. If we push it to grow faster than normal, that raises suspicion." She liked the idea, but it did not feel feasible. "We will have to put a lot of thought into how to proceed from here, but it's good to have some ideas ready."

"You're right. Was that everything we need to prepare for tomorrow?"

Velvet threw a glance to her pack and took stock mentally, then nodded. "We're done." It only took that long for her brother to be back at playing with his stasis-arte. She just rolled her eyes at the sight. Boys.


	9. On Crimson Wings

They made to head out in the morning, right after breakfast. Margaret surprised Velvet a little by hugging her goodbye, then doing the same to Laphi. Both siblings reminded her to keep up with her studies, but Velvet knew there was no real need to worry about it; their student was a diligent girl. Nonetheless, both Crowes looked back to the city once they passed through its heavy gates. Even if it was not for too long, Velvet felt she would miss Margaret being around.

One of the reasons they left so early was the preparations they had to make; it took around four hours for her brother to put together a teleportation arte, time Velvet spent looking for a good hiding spot. They ultimately placed it in a small cave just a quick sprint from Lastonbell but out of view, then sealed off the entrance after placing a self-activating light arte inside. "The gate itself will stay inert until I need it," Laphi explained as they turned to leave for good. "Those artes were made so you can activate them from any connected gate."

After that however, their journey remained mostly uneventful; they traversed the Meadow of Triumph once more, however an area so large could be called a meadow. There were the occasional days of blistering heat or strong gales in the first week, but neither stopped them. Velvet spent the days practicing with her new powers, now a little more free to do so because she had no ethereal clothes to keep from fading away. Unfortunately, she could not practice seraphic artes on the move. Aside from the fact that they could easily stride at the speed of horses and beyond, those artes often required the caster to remain still while the formula was put together; moving could change the flow of mana and thus disrupt the arte. This limited those studies to the breaks they took. Laphi had similar issues, though he did figure out that basic stasis arte a few days in and remained content about his success for almost the rest of the journey.

Some hellions crossed their path, they spied some wild game to hunt and overtook a few travelers by circling around them. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, though especially the first two occurences allowed them to stock up on a great deal of resources; meat, pelts, some money and other effects, the latter taken from those once-human hellions who attacked them mindlessly even within Velvet's domain. In the end however, they needed an entire two weeks to Pendrago like most people required on horseback; Laphi kept making detours to explore small woodlands, caves, and even the odd ruins they found on the way. 

He enjoyed those little trips so much and crawled through the smallest openings with such curiousity that Velvet could not get herself to stop him. This was the journey he always wanted, a real one and not just in a dream. They walked where few humans had been in many years, saw wonders and beauty and cruelty alike. In a way, Velvet understood his feelings in that regard. She got used to seeing so many things on her own journey and tempered herself a little more, but all of this was new to him. So she indulged her brother.

Her own justification, that he might find something useful, proved itself to be more than that after the first week.

"Velvet, look!"

The older Crowe brought the arte she focussed on to completion and let a hail of fist-sized fireballs loose on the back of the cave they made camp in. Only then did she turn to her brother to behold the ornate short sword he held; appraising it, Velvet noticed how the blade was little longer than a dagger and the hilt coloured a deep, earthy brown. The light shining on it made faint engravings visible over its entire length, gleaming pristine as if it had just been forged. Then she took in her brother and sighed. "You should dry yourself." True to the heavy rainfall outside, Laphi was soaked because he could not care less. "God or no god, I won't have you run around in damp clothes."

"Yes, Velvet." He did not argue and put his find down carefully, then wandered over to their pack to get himself some dry clothes. His gaze went to the scorched wall on the way, though. "You seem better at picking up fire artes. Maybe we can move onto Meteor Storm within the year." There was some stifled laughter in the suggestion, but she heard it even though her brother vanished into their storage a moment later. Velvet rolled her eyes and left the quip uncommented, more interested in the sword Laphi found.

Picking it up and holding it, she quickly realised that it was completely unbalanced. The blade had barely any weight at all while the hilt felt heavier than it should be. "This is a ceremonial weapon," she muttered to herself, turning it this way and that. Inscriptions lit up when the light hit them just so, faint lines trailing the gleaming metal. She looked up when the storage-arte flared and Laphi stepped back out, his damp clothes nowhere to be seen; she would have to dry and air them later, she just knew it. Once he returned however, Velvet picked their conversation back up: "It might be because Seres' powers are rooted deep inside me. Her flame is still burning, even if she's gone."

"Possible," Laphi returned while studying his sister. He sat down opposite to her and took the blade, dismissing the subject. "Anyway, this here is an armatisation catalyst. The same formula as what Arthur used, but a lot more advanced and nuanced."

Velvet's eyebrows rose and she scrutinised the weapon again. It _was_ ceremonial, just not in the way she thought. "That explains why it doesn't make for a good weapon on its own. I remember meeting some malakhim who said they wanted to refine the formula for future use."

"They certainly did that," Laphi muttered while running a scanning arte over the blade. "It's almost a piece of art as much as a working formula. This is a catalyst for earth seraphim, so they still kept them separated by element to bond easier with a given seraph. But instead of the old design that only regarded the human part and enhanced it with the malak, this here creates an almost perfect union between both. It's amazing!"

"Interesting." Her eyes wandered from the sword to her brother. "Can you use it?"

Laphi just gave her a flat stare in response. "Do I look like an earth seraph to you? I have no direct elemental affinity at all."

"Shouldn't that mean you can use all catalysts?"

"The opposite, really. I can only use a specialised catalyst made for me specifically, especially because I'm not just a seraph. So I need to make one myself if I want that."

His explanation made sense to her, though Velvet also wondered whether they would need anyone to armatise with Innominat. Again. Not to mention... "You can do that?"

She only received a shrug at that. "Probably? We do have the old catalyst Arthur used and this one here, so I can definitely learn how the arte works and how it was refined over the centuries. It will still take some time, but I should be able to make those after comparing the old and new designs. It will be good to have some at hand in the future."

"I'll say," Velvet agreed with a small grin. "I remember how much trouble those armatised exorcists were. Armatisation is a game changer, assuming we have pairs capable and willing to do it."

"Margaret will probably get there in a few years," Laphi provided thoughtfully. Velvet agreed and they shelved the subject for the time being.

Rain appeared to become a theme over the next days. Where it was more of a nuisance when they got rained on for an hour or two at first, the day they reached Pendrago it had been pouring throughout night and morning. The clouds did not seem like they would lighten up anytime soon, either. 

Velvet offered her recently gained papers at the gate and was let through, only to find herself stopping right inside the main gate. She already passed an unfamiliar outgrowth of housing outside of the walls, the lines of houses had shifted, and architecture was a little different, but the main plaza's fountains and its general layout remained similar to what she remembered. This city remained Loegres, even if it was hammered by torrential rain. Pendrago stood bigger than anything they had ever seen, safe for its previous incarnation and Innominat's physical form up high. Yet now, for the first time, neither of them was on an important mission. For the first time, they could take in the majesty that was a capital city.

It did not matter that people hurried this way and that to escape the rain, the rain itself did not matter in these moments. Velvet and Laphicet just drank in the sight solemnly, holding hands and squeezing the other. Houses of stone and wood reached almost to the horizon, kept safe by walls which had been built a thousand years ago. The royal castle rested high above, having been built on a hill overlooking what was once Loegres. Carts rolled past them through the gate, in and out, horses trotting along with their riders. The Crowes were not the only people awed by the sight of Pendrago, though they stood to take it in the longest. When they finally moved, it was toward the inner city. Laphi did not take long to skip forward in a different direction to Velvet's own. "I can go and talk to the local seraphim," he excused himself with.

Velvet let him, knowing that most of her current errands were about selling the things she found and hunted. It would take a while, partly due to the amount of goods she accumulated on the way and partly because selling all of those at once would be suspicious. She would have to give the impression of hauling things in over several trips, perhaps even sell to different people so as to not raise too much suspicion. On her way, she heard some people muttering that the rain had been pouring down for an entire week at this point despite it not being the right season. The harvest would be ruined at this rate, they said.

This gave her pause and stayed on her mind until she reunited with Laphi in the evening; once in the safety of a room at one of the inns, she asked him about it. "I was wondering, are there artes to affect the weather?"

"Because of the rain?" She nodded, figuring he heard the same thing as she did. Laphi shrugged and emitted a few streamers of mana that he began to weave together absently. "Yes, there are. But those are not at all easy to set up or to maintain, they are rituals somewhere between normal artes and Oaths. Possible for a single seraph to pull off, but it takes a while. Especially if you want a continuous effect, that requires to maintain the arte after setting it up."

Velvet took that in quietly, sitting on the bed and playing with some minor arte of her own. Strings of mana weaved together to form a crimson circle. "The seraphim here in Pendrago wouldn't have any reason to do this, right?"

"Right. I didn't hear anything from them, they're just as confused about this." Laphi paused to watch as she created a small, gleaming sphere, then continued to talk and weave: "But it's still odd enough that we should keep an ear out. We can take a few days to look around, right?"

A nod was given and remained unseen because Laphi was busy. Velvet did not even notice as she made her source of light hover around carefully. "We can, and we will keep an ear out. I want to do some shopping myself, now that we have some money at hand." The light fizzled out. "But that aside, I have been thinking." She got up and went over to their pack, then bent inside and pulled out a few pieces of parchment holding their notes, as well as an empty one; quill and ink followed, then she settled down at the room's small desk. Laphi joined her soon after, curious. 

"We need something like an organisation and we need it fast," Velvet voiced her thoughts as she uncorked the ink. "This leaves us with two options; either we try to take over an existing organisation, or we found something illegal, out of sight of the law. Anything else takes too much time."

"Agreed." Laphi frowned down at the yet clean parchment. "But we do not know which organisations exist, who is in them, or where the Lord of Calamity might already have his own people to undermine a group. So I think we should make our own."

"I was thinking much the same thing," Velvet agreed with her brother. "The longer we can stay unseen, the more we can set ourselves up for a decisive strike. We also need to find people we can be sure aren't with the Lord of Calamity, that will be the bigger problem." She paused and sought her brother's eyes, smiling. "I actually had an idea about that. We are both dummies for not thinking of it sooner, it just came to me earlier." She dunked the quill's tip in ink and began to write as she explained: "There is an entire race afraid of Malevolence, right in front of our noses. If we can recruit seraphim...."

She trailed off and let Laphi finish the thought: "Then we have people who are assuredly not working with our enemy and who can easily spy on humans without being noticed." It was so simple and yet genius; he grinned just like she did, even more when he read the bullet point she had written in her own, somewhat messy handwriting. "I can see where you are going with this and I like it." 

Velvet nodded at her brother, but hesitated and added an additional point as she thought of her old friends. "We just have to keep in mind that even a Lord of Calamity can have a few seraphim helping them. I did, too." Reminding herself of Eizen and Phi made Velvet think back for a moment. Being reminded of their current situation made her chest ache, but she expelled those feelings with a deep sigh. 

"That is true as well," Laphi conceded then. "Nonetheless, seraphim are the least likely to be involved with our enemies. So once we have everything worked out, I can go and ask around. Though I guess we actually need a name and a base of operations... and maybe not be too evil for them to work with us. Unless you want me to suppress them." Velvet had begun to giggle over the 'not too evil' part, but what followed made her gaze harden instantly. The smirk she saw on Laphi's face made it clear he was joking, though.

After a few minutes of idle silence, he got up and went for the door. "Do you mind if I look around some more? I'm curious how the city looks at night." Velvet made a dismissive wave at that, knowing that he could protect himself if need be. "Thank you, I won't be too long!"

The door opened and closed, leaving Velvet alone with her thoughts. 

The older Crowe sighed and sealed the ink vial again, then she let out another, heavier sigh and put her head on her arms. Thinking of some of her friends made her aware of the rest again; she missed them. Eizen with his grumbling and almost childlike excitement for all kinds of knowledge, Phi's kindness and pleasant behaviour, Rokurou and his earnestness, Eleanor as a stick in the mud to their fun and yet always willing to help and improve, and Magilou too. 

Funny, she thought to herself; the first time she met the quirky witch, Velvet would never have thought she would miss her one day. Magilou of all people was bothersome, loud, lewd, and generally an annoyance; yet she was also bringing cheer into the group, remained fiercely loyal until the very end despite acting so weird about it, and aided with knowledge no one else possessed. They would not have succeeded without her.

Thinking of those five however, made Velvet think of the many other people she had met during that journey. Dyle and Kurogane, a lizard daemon and animated armour respectively; sailor and blacksmith, yet they somehow became an odd sort of friends. She thought back to Medissa and Kamoana; a mother who lost her child and a daughter without a mother, who found solace in each other. More than anything else, Velvet hoped that those two managed to live good lives. 

She thought of Prince Percival and his pet hawk, Griffin. A man who would betray his country for his feathered friend, for Griffin to be free. An ordinary man of great character nonetheless. Then, fatefully, Velvet's thoughts went to Tabatha. Just as ordinary as Percival yet hardly more different. An old woman who maneuvered through the shadows for decades. One who aided Velvet's cause... behind the scenes.

Her mind ground to a halt as an idea began to form. This last memory brought with it many more. She uncorked the ink again and hastily began to write her thoughts down, an almost manic grin gracing her features.

**. .  
. .**

In the meantime, Laphicet was wandering mostly empty streets. There were still people out, but far less of them than during daytime; he figured at least some of them were smugglers or thieves or other such things, but he caught none of them actually committing a crime when he passed by and left them be. Chances were they would find no victims, thanks to the constant rain. He was looking for seraphim yet those, too, had been driven back into their homes by the downpour. It would be rude to bother them there this late, so Laphi kept wandering, kept taking in the much different face of such a big city by night.

He did not pay much mind to his other senses, which led to a bit of a surprise when he passed by a nook in the wall he had ignored before. A mature, female voice called out over the rain: "My, this is a most unusual sight. My eyes are not deceiving me." He turned back immediately and felt the sensation of mana in front of him; it tingled his senses in the way only the presence of a seraph could. Before him sat a chubby cat, fur as white as snow. The feline gazed up at him from under a small dome of mana that protected her from the rain, slitted eyes studying his form.

The boy could not help but smile as he recognised her. "Hello, Morgrim. It has been a while." He then crouched in front of the cat and reached out a hand. "Is touching you okay?"

Morgrim blinked, but her expression did not change beside the pleased surprise in her voice: "And so polite. Go ahead, though I am curious why we meet again."

Laphicet reached over, but then paused and created a bigger mana dome first to keep the rain out; then he dried his hands and pulled up his sleeves before he began to pet the other seraph carefully. "My sister and I found out there is some... _business_ for us to take care of," he offered. "We're looking around to learn more about the situation at the moment."

Despite her purring, Morgrim listened attentively; she pushed her head against his hand. "Scratch a little stronger. I think I understand what you are after; the recent spread of Malevolence is unusual; it must be worse than I expected, if you of all people were brought forth to deal with it. Although I heard you were destroyed."

"Probably a lie someone told to prevent people from looking for us."

"Quite true." The purring faded out somewhat and after a moment, Morgrim left her perch under Laphicet's hand to face him directly again. "Please take me to Velvet. I wish to speak with her."

Boy and cat stared at each other for a long moment, then Laphicet nodded. "Alright. Velvet _is_ allergic to cats, or at least she was, but I think you should be fine as a seraph." He quickly dried the rest of himself and picked Morgrim up to carry her in his arms. The cat seraph mewled a little, but did not complain any more once they began to move; instead, she curiously peered around at the various things around them from her unusual, new perspective. Laphi kept his dome up and expanded it a little so the wind could not carry any water to Morgrim. 

Once he returned to their room at the inn, Velvet greeted him with a bright grin. "We're set," she announced.

"We are?"

"Yes. We will reform the Bloodwing Butterflies."

Laphicet's eyes widened at that, but it did not take long for him to grin as well. "The shadow guild? That might be perfect, actually; I heard they put a lot of effort into aiding the common folk, so if we go with a similar approach, that should convince quite a few to join up."

Only then did he remember their guest, seeing that Morgrim began to squirm. "Oh, right. Sorry."

Velvet appeared to notice the cat for the first time now and eyed her curiously as she was let down onto the ground. "Who did you... is that Morgrim?"

"Just so, Lord of Calamity." If cats could grin, then this one absolutely did as she sat down and peered up at Velvet. "It has been a while. How have you been?"

The other woman huffed and crossed her arms with a smile. "Just fine, how about you?"

"The same."

Both stared at each other curiously and Laphi took a seat at the side; it made sense that Morgrim kept her distance from a being of Malevolence, but he did not expect both of them to act so formal. "For the record, Velvet is no Lord of Calamity anymore," he commented Both turned to him as he elaborated with a weak grin: "It's 'goddess of darkness' now. Her new name is Minkkubi."

"How intriguing." The cat eyed both gods as she considered everything, then she hopped onto the bed and laid down on her paws. "You just spoke of forming a shadow guild. Explain what is going on in the world and I will consider joining you." The siblings exchanged glances, but neither saw a reason not to. Morgrim knew much and they could not afford her to relay information to the wrong people; moreover, they could not just throw away an opportunity.

So they explained, much as they explained to Zaveid before. About the sibling gods, about Maotelus being under threat, about their own decision to explore the world and learn what they could before taking action. The night had progressed by the time their explanations and Morgrim's questions wound down. The cat seraph had rolled onto her side and received pats from Laphicet, purring and thinking.

"I believe it is prudent that I help you," she ultimately decided; Laphi was quietly relieved at that, to learn they just made their first ally. "I know a few of the locals who would be interested in joining a shadow guild. Some for the novelty of it, some out of a desire to do good for the humans. But in addition, I will step up as Lord of the Land." Velvet frowned at that and turned her gaze to Laphicet, who shrugged; Morgrim followed the exchange and explained without prompting: "A powerful seraph, provided a pure vessel, can extend a domain to weaken the effect of Malevolence in the area. It will not be anywhere near as potent as your blessing," she told Velvet without much care, "but it is something."

Laphi was curious now. "Why didn't you do that before now?" he asked, but the question just earned a look from Morgrim.

"I didn't feel like it."

They stared at her askance, but left it at that. Yet he knew Velvet thought the same thing: cats would always be cats, seraph or not. "...anyway," he picked back up after the silence carried on for a while, "how much should we reveal to any other Bloodwings? Especially those who haven't been around in our time? Would they work with a hellion?" A nod went to Velvet and Morgrim considered the matter Laphicet presented.

"A good question," she allowed in the end. "Seraphim have become more comfortable being around humans in the past thousand years, but this might strain their goodwill. Likewise, while revealing that part of Velvet's nature would be a risk, it could also serve your, our goals long-term. You do not exude Malevolence," the cat told his sister directly, "so it may work; disclosing this much ahead of time instead of turning it into a secret which, when revealed, might lead to issues down the road would be my recommendation."

There was no 'if' to be considered; all three of them knew such matters would come out sooner or later. Velvet nodded. "An organisation such as this requires trust, and trust needs to be earned."

Laphicet had nothing to add to that, except one matter he doubted would be an issue: "We all agree that our _actual_ natures should and will remain secret, though." Both Velvet and Morgrim gave him nods, just like he expected. "Good, good. I can put down a teleportation arte tomorrow and follow Morgrim to talk to any prospective members."

"Curious, so very curious." The cat batted his hand away and began to groom herself, but she kept speaking: "I know a few abandoned houses around town; one or two of them are thought to be haunted, so humans would not go there. We can dig a cellar to hide such an arte." Everything was falling into place and even while they spent another hour discussing how to proceed, Laphicet felt confident about their plans. They had a goal now, not to mention a good idea to act on. He wondered if perhaps there should be a secondary means of approaching their problem, but they could not afford to spread themselves too thin at the moment. It would have to do.

Going by the smile on her face, Velvet was happy with their progress as well.


End file.
